Octopus Moon

A deeply moving middle-grade novel in verse about a girl struggling with depression as she starts fifth grade amid a sea of changes.

Ten-year-old Pearl loves watching the majestic loggerhead turtles and octopuses glide through the water at the aquarium. Pearl finds it especially easy to identify with the octopuses, who have millions of touch receptors all over their bodies. They feel everything. Sometimes Pearl wishes she was more like a turtle, with a hard outer shell—it hurts too much to feel everything.

And the changes at the start of fifth grade don’t feel good to Pearl at all. New teachers, lockers, and being in different classes than her friends is unsettling. Pearl tries her best to pretend she’s fine, but she starts to struggle with things that used to come easy, like doing schoolwork; laughing and skateboarding with her best friend, Rosie; running; and even sleeping.

After a disastrous parent-teacher conference, her parents bring Pearl to Dr. Jill, who diagnoses her with depression. At first Pearl is resistant, ashamed of needing Dr. Jill’s help; she doesn’t like feeling different, but she also doesn’t want to continue feeling so bad all the time. When Dr. Jill asks Pearl to try one Impossible Thing each day, Pearl agrees. For each impossible thing she attempts, Pearl puts a bead on a string. Bead by bead, and with the support of family and friends, Pearl finds her way back to herself.

In this tender novel in verse, critically acclaimed author Bobbie Pyron draws on her own childhood experience to tell the story of a brave girl learning to love herself, leaving readers with the powerful, hopeful message that the moon is always full, even if we can’t always see that.