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Authors: Paul Fleischman
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of dried lima beans. Then I walked outside to the street.
The sidewalk was completely empty. It was Sunday, early in April. An icy wind teetered trash cans and turned my cheeks to marble. In Vietnam we had no weather like that. Here in Cleveland people call it spring. I walked half a block, then crossed the street and reached the vacant lot.
I stood tall and scouted. No one was sleeping on the old couch in the middle. Iâd never entered the lot before, or wanted to. I did so now, picking my way between tires and trash bags. I nearly stepped on two rats gnawing and froze. Then I told myself that I must show my bravery. I continued farther and chose a spot far from the sidewalk and hidden from view by a rusty refrigerator. I had to keep my project safe.
I took out my spoon and began to dig. The snow had melted, but the ground was hard. After much work, I finished one hole, then a second, then a third. I thought about how my mother and sisters remembered my father, how they knew his face from every angle and held in their fingers the feel of his hands. I had no such memories to cry over. Iâd been born eight months after heâd died. Worse, he had no memories of me. When his spirit hovered over our altar, did it even know who I was?
I dug six holes. All his life in Vietnam my father had been a farmer. Here our apartment house had no yard. But in that vacant lot he would see me. He would watch my beans break ground and spread, and would notice with pleasure their pods growing plump. He would see my patience and my hard work. I would show him that I could raise plants, as he had. I would show him that I was his daughter.
My class had sprouted lima beans in paper cups the year before. I now placed a bean in each of the holes. I covered them up, pressing the soil down firmly with my fingertips. I opened my thermos and watered them all. And I vowed to myself that those beans would thrive.
Also by Paul Fleischman
Young Adult Novels
Breakout
Seek
Mindâs Eye
Whirligig
Seedfolks
A Fate Totally Worse Than Death
Bull Run
The Borning Room
Saturnalia
Picture Books
Sidewalk Circus
The Animal Hedge
Weslandia
Lost
Time Train
Poetry
Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices
Middle Grade Fiction
The Half-A-Moon Inn
Non-Fiction
Cannibal in the Mirror
Dateline: Troy
Credits
Cover art © 1991 by Neil Waldman
Cover © 1991 by HarperCollins Publishers
Copyright
T HE HALF-A-MOON INN . Text copyright © 1980 by Paul Fleischman. Illustrations copyright © 1980 by Kathy Jacobi. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
----
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fleischman, Paul.
The Half-a-Moon Inn.
Summary: A mute boy is held captive by the strange proprietress of an inn.
[1. KidnappingâFiction. 2. MutismâFiction. 3. Physically handicappedâFiction. 4. Hotels, motels, etc.âFiction.] I. Jacobi, Kathy. II. Title.
PZ7.F599233Hal    [Fic]    79-2010
ISBN 0-06-021917-3
ISBN 0-06-021918-1 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 0-06-440364-5 (pbk.)
EPub Edition April 2013 ISBN 9780062283658
----
12 13 LP/CW 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8,
The sidewalk was completely empty. It was Sunday, early in April. An icy wind teetered trash cans and turned my cheeks to marble. In Vietnam we had no weather like that. Here in Cleveland people call it spring. I walked half a block, then crossed the street and reached the vacant lot.
I stood tall and scouted. No one was sleeping on the old couch in the middle. Iâd never entered the lot before, or wanted to. I did so now, picking my way between tires and trash bags. I nearly stepped on two rats gnawing and froze. Then I told myself that I must show my bravery. I continued farther and chose a spot far from the sidewalk and hidden from view by a rusty refrigerator. I had to keep my project safe.
I took out my spoon and began to dig. The snow had melted, but the ground was hard. After much work, I finished one hole, then a second, then a third. I thought about how my mother and sisters remembered my father, how they knew his face from every angle and held in their fingers the feel of his hands. I had no such memories to cry over. Iâd been born eight months after heâd died. Worse, he had no memories of me. When his spirit hovered over our altar, did it even know who I was?
I dug six holes. All his life in Vietnam my father had been a farmer. Here our apartment house had no yard. But in that vacant lot he would see me. He would watch my beans break ground and spread, and would notice with pleasure their pods growing plump. He would see my patience and my hard work. I would show him that I could raise plants, as he had. I would show him that I was his daughter.
My class had sprouted lima beans in paper cups the year before. I now placed a bean in each of the holes. I covered them up, pressing the soil down firmly with my fingertips. I opened my thermos and watered them all. And I vowed to myself that those beans would thrive.
Also by Paul Fleischman
Young Adult Novels
Breakout
Seek
Mindâs Eye
Whirligig
Seedfolks
A Fate Totally Worse Than Death
Bull Run
The Borning Room
Saturnalia
Picture Books
Sidewalk Circus
The Animal Hedge
Weslandia
Lost
Time Train
Poetry
Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
I Am Phoenix: Poems for Two Voices
Middle Grade Fiction
The Half-A-Moon Inn
Non-Fiction
Cannibal in the Mirror
Dateline: Troy
Credits
Cover art © 1991 by Neil Waldman
Cover © 1991 by HarperCollins Publishers
Copyright
T HE HALF-A-MOON INN . Text copyright © 1980 by Paul Fleischman. Illustrations copyright © 1980 by Kathy Jacobi. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
----
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fleischman, Paul.
The Half-a-Moon Inn.
Summary: A mute boy is held captive by the strange proprietress of an inn.
[1. KidnappingâFiction. 2. MutismâFiction. 3. Physically handicappedâFiction. 4. Hotels, motels, etc.âFiction.] I. Jacobi, Kathy. II. Title.
PZ7.F599233Hal    [Fic]    79-2010
ISBN 0-06-021917-3
ISBN 0-06-021918-1 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 0-06-440364-5 (pbk.)
EPub Edition April 2013 ISBN 9780062283658
----
12 13 LP/CW 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8,
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