Four Faces of the Moon

Elizabeth Revelo
TED 8660
Young Adult Literature
September 14, 2021

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LETTER
Dear Amanda Strong:
I really enjoyed your novel Four Faces of the Moon. There were a couple of things I
wanted to talk with you about.
1. I found the wording really engaging and mysterious. It drew out the story so you were
holding onto each word. The writing was very thoughtful with great metaphors and
visualizations and stop-motion pictures to match. The vibe and energy was always on
par and it didn’t sway. The novel’s energy was very consistent throughout as was the
writing. Some of the pages that I really felt this way was on pages 25-31, 104-112, and
170-175. On pages 106-112, the writing speaks about the trains and how they were a
machine that created a “genocide of the buffalo.” This is very strong vocabulary within
the pages also including starvation, fear, desperation - you do not hold back even a little
bit and I love that. I also really thought it was awesome to see the body language and
facial expressions of your stop-motion and you kept them very similar to real-life facial
features of real-life indigenous persons.
2. I found your illustrations were really intriguing and thoughtful. One of the pages that left
me dazzled was the picture of the buffalo disappearing on page 110. It spoke well to the
text of “A dead buffalo equaled a dead Indian.” Again with the broken cow skull, the
bright flash of the bullet with the text “They would not stop until everything became
unrecogniable” (pg. 124). It was striking to see the settlers on top of the bones of the
bison they killed (pg. 127). It was beautifully written and very poetic and artistic. I also
really enjoyed the stop-motion and photography throughout. book. It was really
fascinating and intriguing. It really sets itself apart from other graphic novels of our time.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Revelo
Strong, A. (2021). Four faces of the moon. Annick Press.