The Moon Within (Scholastic Gold), Paperback

* A worthy successor to Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret set in present-day Oakland. -Kirkus Reviews, starred review

The Moon Within joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content

Celi Rivera's life swirls with questions.

About her changing body.

Her first attraction to a boy.

And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid.

But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It's an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be?

A dazzling story told with the sensitivity, humor, and brilliant verse of debut talent Aida Salazar.

Aida Salazar is a writer, arts advocate, and homeschooling mother who grew up in South East LA. She received an MFA in Writing from the California Institute of the Arts, and her writings have appeared in publications such as the Huffington Post, Women and Performance: Journal of Feminist Theory, and Huizache Magazine. Her short story By the Light of the Moon was adapted into a ballet by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. Aida lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, California.