Moraline - Cintia Alfonso Fior - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Cintia Alfonso Fior

GENRE: Middle-grade Fiction, Inspirational.

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A middle-grade novel dealing with several intense topics. Goes a bit heavy-handed on the message, but the lush writing and the relevant themes make this indie debut an interesting pick for youngsters.

Story Synopsis:

Twelve year old Moraline has recently shifted with her family from NYC to San Diego, California. She has a tendency to run from problems, which seem to have increased after the move. But when she has a chance encounter with a Native American spirit, Moraline begins to feel a sense of purpose, further fuelled by the varying winds that are always accompanying her. With her new friends Serenity, Amani, and Edmundo, Moraline learns several life lessons, especially that kids are not too young to make a difference in the world.

The book comes to us in the third person limited perspective of Moraline, but the content is divided into four episodic sections, each focussing on a serious ‘issue’ related to one of the above four children.

Where the book worked for me:

💐 I appreciate how the book promoted the idea that we are all in this together. Whether it is racial issues or monetary issues or natural issues, there is no ’we’ vs. ‘them’. If some of us get affected, all of us will be affected eventually. This is the most important lesson that each of us needs to remember. The author even applies this idea to the usually demarcated topics of children's rights and environmental justice.

💐 The author’s background—she is a clinical psychologist with an MA in Peace and Justice Studies and works with ‘Rising Advocates’—is put to good use in the story. There’s an underlying sense of genuineness and sincerity throughout the story.

💐 The four central characters being from minority ethnic backgrounds helps the story tremendously. Through the four of them, we get a look at the Native American, Congolese, and Mexican cultures.

💐 The imagery created by the author in the nature scenes is brilliant. The lush descriptions bring the scenes alive. Her lyrical prose doesn’t seem like the work of a debut writer at all, and an indie one at that!

Where the book left me with mixed feelings:

🌹 The book covers several contemporary issues, each of which is highly practical and the awareness of which is the need of the hour. The book thus provides lots of learning opportunities to its young readers. At the same time, if you see the list of topics covered (bullying, animal & forest conservation, parental death, indigenous culture destruction and preservation, racial discrimination, colour discrimination, refugee issues, residential upheaval, police brutality towards minorities especially Blacks, child labour, hazardous farming practices,… and many more!), you will see that it is overly extensive. As a result, there's no single dominant message but a clutter of too many important tidbits, which dilutes the impact of the key points. This is something I have seen often with debut writers – they want everything to be covered in ‘Book One’. I wish the book could have been written as a linked series, with each section presented as a separate book. The moral would have come out much more strongly and clearly.

🌹 This is primarily a book about friendships (and it does an outstanding job of depicting great peer relationships), but this lopsided focus results in family taking a backseat. The parents and siblings of the four kids are more like an afterthought, making an appearance only when some issue needs to be brought up.

🌹 There are several magical realism elements in the story, such as the seemingly sentient wind or the aura that Moraline can sense at times or the crow doll. But these aren’t explored to the fullest potential. The Native American spirit who appears to Moraline towards the start is underutilised.

🌹 The B&W illustrations in the book are quite striking, but they are too few. There are exactly four illustrations in the book, one per section. (Not counting the sketches bordering the section titles.) If I were a child, I would surely have wanted more sketches.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

🌵The very minute I saw the title, I thought of Neil Gaiman’s ‘Coraline’. When my daughter saw me reading this book, her first question was, ‘Is this a sequel to Coraline?’ I couldn’t find the meaning of the name ‘Moraline’ anywhere online, and while the meaning of her name is explained in between the book, I couldn’t find anything to corroborate this as well. I wish the central character had a different name that would have allowed me to read the book without thinking of Coraline, a character as brave as Moraline, albeit for different reasons.

All in all, despite going somewhat overboard on the themes, the book still left me fairly satisfied with its emphasis on diversity, acceptance, friendship, and speaking up against injustice. This would be a great read for middle graders and younger teens, offering plenty of fodder for thought.

My thanks to author Cintia Alfonso Fior for providing me with a complimentary copy of ‘Moraline’. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.