GUARDING THE MOON: A MOTHER'S FIRST YEAR
HarperResource, April 15, 2003
ISBN: 0066213673
Guarding the Moon is young adult author Francesca Lia Block's poetic nonfiction book, detailing
her experiences in the first year of being a mother.
Her daughter, Jasmine,
is the subject of this book (though her name is mentioned only once in the
actual text; all through the narrative she is referred to by fifty-odd
nicknames).
Here she gives us a story of pain, fear, wonder, sadness, and
love, centered around her baby girl and her family and personal life,
including touching recollections of her own adolescence, her struggles with
eating disorders, her changing self-image, her miscarriages, her experiences
with yoga and nursing, and her own relationship with her mother. Reading
this book gives one a powerful understanding of what being a mother is like
for one unique woman, and most readers will see pieces of themselves in her
experience.