Thirteen-year-old Lucia Frank discovers that she can become the girl she’s always wanted to be with the help of a little “moon magic” in this charming novel about the value of friendship, family, and finding yourself. Lucia Frank has never had time for her mom’s “new age” nonsense. She doesn’t believe in any of that stuff. All she wants is to figure out how to get her best friend, Will, back and cope with her parents looming divorce. But then something strange happens on the night of her thirteenth birthday. When the eclipsed moon slips into the shadow of the earth, Lucia’s Shadow slips out. Now hidden in a moonstone, the Shadow waits for Lucia to sleep so it can come out to play. Lucia’s Shadow seems unlike her in almost every way: daring, outspoken, and unwilling to let anyone push her around. But it actually isn’t the anti-Lucia…in fact, her Shadow is very much like the person Lucia wishes she could be. At first, Lucia is eager to undo whatever magic happened on her birthday so life can get back to normal. But when she realizes her Shadow is doing and saying things she has only dreamed about, she wonders if maybe things aren’t all bad. With a little help from her Shadow, she’s turning into the kind of girl she’s always wanted to be. Erin Downing (a.k.a. Erin Soderberg) has written many books for kids, tweens, and young adults. Before turning to writing full time, Erin worked as a children’s book editor and marketer, spent a few months as a cookie inventor, and also worked for Nickelodeon. She lives, writes, and eats out with her husband and three young children in Minneapolis. For more information, visit ErinDowning.com. Moon Shadow CHAPTER ONE Moon pies are obvious, right, Lucia?” Jonathan Bauer piled an armload of gooey, plastic-wrapped treats into our shopping cart. “Ooh! What about Nutty Bars?” He held a yellow box in front of my face, pleading with his huge, puppy-dog eyes. I squinted back and asked, “How do Nutty Bars fit with an eclipse theme?” “They’re awesome?” Jonathan shrugged, then dumped them into the cart. “That must count for something.” Our friend Anji—short for Anjali—Mehta hollered from the next aisle over, “If we’re going to ignore Lucia’s food rules, then I vote for Doritos over Sun Chips!” I could hear her opening a bag of chips; the crunching echoed in the empty grocery store aisle. “It’s your thirteenth birthday, Lu. Shouldn’t we celebrate in style? Sun Chips are the armpit of the chip section.” “Come on, you guys,” I pleaded. “Sun Chips, moon pies, Starburst, star fruit . . . How lucky is it that star fruit is even in season somewhere in the world? Can we please stick with the theme?” I poked through our cart, admiring the small pile of outer-space-themed food we were buying for that night’s lunar eclipse. The last total eclipse that had been visible in our little piece of the northeast was on the night I was born. Because of this birth connection, I’d been obsessed with eclipses my whole life, but I hadn’t ever seen one live. “Besides, my dad only gave us twenty bucks. We can’t afford much.” “Whoa,” Jonathan said, holding up one hand. “Your dad gave you twenty bucks? Nice. Mine gave me nothing.” “Well, it is my birthday,” I reminded him. “And I didn’t want a cake.” Jonathan half smiled. “Even if it were my birthday, my dad wouldn’t be handing over a twenty.” I didn’t know what to say to that, so I pushed our cart around the corner and grabbed a chip from Anji’s open bag of Doritos. Then I dropped it back in. I always felt guilty eating food I hadn’t yet paid for. “Do you really want to ruin our eclipse feast with Doritos and Nutty Bars? I guarantee there will be other food at Velvet’s party.” “Ugh. Don’t remind me that we’re going to Velvet’s party to eat this stuff,” Anji moaned. She rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, looking fierce in her green miniskirt and yellow tights. “Are you sure you want to go tonight? It feels wrong that this is how you want to celebrate your birthday.” “I’m sure,” I said, even though I really wasn’t. Ever since first grade, Velvet Mills—self-appointed queen of the “Chosen Ones”—had hosted a huge annual party that every kid in our grade was invited to. In third grade she’d had a pool party at a fancy hotel. In fourth her parents rented out a whole bowling alley and let everyone order food off the menu. Last year, in sixth grade, Velvet’s mom hired a party planner to turn their backyard into a full-on beach with sand and tiki lights and everything. There were hula dancers wiggling around, and this chubby guy hung out all night roasting a whole pig over a fire. Her parties were seriously over the top. Everyone talked about them for the rest of the year—which is exactly what Velvet wanted. She was the kind of person who lived to be loved and admired. Velvet was also one of the girls in our grade who nearly every other girl longed to be. Her dad was the chairman of Peep Records, she wore clothes you couldn’t buy a