Joyous & Moonbeam

Joyous and Moonbeam, this is a story about a fifteen year old girl, who after a couple of bad decisions, has to do some voluntary work where she meets Joyous. Joyous is a thirty-something year old man who has an un-named mental disability (though we do learn what caused his mental state later in the book).I liked the idea of this book but what I expected from it didn't really come to fruition, and I was left feeling kind of let down with the ending which wasn't really an ending. The final page o [...]

Please find more (and up-to-date) reviews on my blog, TheCosyDragon Joyous lives a peaceful life. Moonbeam's life is in upheaval. Together, they might be able to work things around a little. The narrative style of this novel put me off right from the beginning. The first person narrator of Joyous was jarring, and really out there for me. I struggled to read his and the shared sections with Moonbeam.It took me a little while, but I worked out that there was something wrong with Joyous, other than [...]

3.5 Stars really.Great potential here, only it didn't quite hit it. It was one of those books that makes me love life; I walked away feeling great. It's chock full of this positive message about how you have to find the silver lining in everything (and it is there in anything if you really look). The general story is not at all what I thought it was going to be about when I read a vague blurb about it being a coming of age story (yes another one) and a modern To Kill A Mockingbird (this may be w [...]

This is a lovely book about a friendship between an intellectually disabled man, Joyous, and an unhappy teenager, Ashleigh, whom Joyous calls Moonbeam. Along the way we learn why Moonbeam is so troubled, and we learn about Joyous' remarkable mother who taught him how to "turn things round". It's a delightful take on 'every cloud has a silver lining' (listen to this song from the 1920s) and is really nicely done in this book.I was just a little unsure about Joyous' idiosyncratic speech, which is [...]

Uni assignment was to redesign the book cover. We were given an extract but I didn't feel this was enough to really get to know the book. So I borrowed it from the library. I ended up in the hospital for pancreatitis about 3 days after I got this assignment and the day after I borrowed the book. Being in hospital, I had a lot of time to read it. I enjoyed it well enough, I wasn't exactly the target audience, but then it was hard to tell who was at times. The book was defined as young adult, but [...]

This is a very gentle read with a great message. Joyous and Moonbeam, almost on the edge of fantasy world, is a delightful story. The subtle ness of the message makes an impression very early in the telling. Joyous finds himself in a place for the mentally ill and befriends a young girl, Moonbeam, who is having a number of issues in her life. Joyous is an innocent young man who accepts life as it comes with a philosophy of working things around a little to see the positives in life. He has had a [...]

"Joyous is always truesome." In spite of all the appalling and tragic things that have been thrown at him, this remarkable character - an adult male with intellectual disabilities,has a way of 'working things around a little' to find something positive in all circumstances. This has a profound impact on the angry teen girl who meets him as part of her 'enforced' community service. Lives unfold through the words of Joyous, Ashleigh (who Joyous renames Moonbeam) and letters from Joyous's mother.

Books like this are why I read. To meet characters whose lives move me and teach me. In this book we hear directly from Joyous and Moonbeam as each tells of the friendship between them and they slowly reveal their lives. The reader wants everything to be all right even when you know it usually is not. Although for Joyous it is just a matter of 'working things around', seeing the positive in everything, his philosophy of life inherited from his father. Margaret's letters to Joyous add another bea [...]

Really didn't like this "heartwarming" YA novel. I'll be more expansive in my review in Viewpoint.

Plays nicely with language. Gives some useful ways of looking into the origins of dysfunctional relationships and the different ways people find of coping with them.

Great inventinve language.

The first chapter didn't grab me, but I persevered. Around the middle I thought it had the potential to be brilliant, but seemed to missing something. The ending disappointed a little.

I liked this book. It is a feel good story about a very young couple who have little to celebrate.