Me and Mrs Moon

Mrs Moon lives next door to Maisie, and every day she picks her up from school, with her friend Dylan, and looks after them, and they all have a lot of fun together in the school holidays. They love her and her dog, Jack, and call her Granny Moon, but when she starts acting strangely they are puzzled and concerned. At Christmas time, the friends find the room hung with colourful socks, and she asks them to decorate an enormous Christmas tree with toilet paper streamers. She talks to a folk band which isn’t there, and at one point thinks Maisie is her daughter Angela, but she can sometimes be perfectly normal. Maisie and Dylan see an item on TV about dementia, and they worry that Granny Moon will have to go away, especially when she becomes worried about a little girl trapped in the radiator. Not recognising Danny in the park means that Danny’s Dad also becomes concerned, but then she seems fine again. It only becomes really obvious when Granny Moon wakes them all in the middle of the night trying to take the radiator off the wall, and Angela has to be summoned from Australia. Tension and upset results as Mrs Moon resents interference, but eventually all is resolved satisfactorily.
This is a useful graphic novel about love and loyalty, and it may help the many children who find they know someone with dementia, or have to cope with a relative whose behaviour is puzzling. The worry about a girl in the radiator is a true example of the effect dementia can have on a person’s mind, and a book written by Martin Slevin about his mother is the basis for this part of the story. Helen Bate is a qualified architect, and draws people with real character. She likes to produce books which will help in a situation, and this is also an enjoyable read.