Meet Ginny Moon.
She’s mostly your average teenager—she plays flute in the school band, has weekly basketball practice and reads Robert Frost poems for English class. But Ginny is autistic. And so what’s important to her might seem a bit...different: starting every day with exactly nine grapes for breakfast, Michael Jackson, taking care of her baby doll and crafting a Big Secret Plan of escape.
Ginny has been in foster care for years, and for the first time in her life, she has found her “forever home”—a place where she’ll be safe and protected, with a family who will love and nurture her. Though this is exactly the kind of home that all foster kids are hoping for, Ginny has other plans. She’ll steal and lie and reach across her past to exploit the good intentions of those who love her—anything it takes to get back what’s missing in her life. She’ll even try to get herself kidnapped.
Told in an extraordinary and wholly original voice, Ginny Moon is at once quirky, charming, bighearted, poignant and yet also heartbreaking and a bit dark. It’s a story of a journey, about being an outsider trying to find a place to belong and about making sense of a world that just doesn’t seem to add up.
The Truth According to Ginny Moon
Benjamin Ludwig
Contents
6:54 at night, Tuesday, September 7th
7:33 at night, Tuesday, September 7th
2:27 in the afternoon, Wednesday, September 8th
2:50 in the afternoon, Wednesday, September 8th
2:45 in the afternoon, Thursday, September 9th
6:45 in the morning, Friday, September 10th
7:04 in the morning, Friday, September 10th
9:08 in the morning, Saturday, September 11th
11:03 at night, Sunday, September 12th
11:32 in the morning, Monday, September 13th
Exactly 6:57 in the morning, Tuesday, September 14th
Exactly 3:31 in the afternoon, Tuesday, September 14th
Exactly 10:05 in the morning, Wednesday, September 15th
Exactly 6:52 in the morning, Friday, September 17th
Exactly 10:33 in the morning, Saturday, September 18th
Exactly 9:10 in the morning, Monday, September 20th
Exactly 3:05 in the afternoon, Tuesday, September 21st
Exactly 4:08 in the afternoon, Wednesday, September 22nd
Exactly 5:29, Monday, October 18th
Exactly 5:43 at night, Monday, October 18th
Exactly 5:27 in the morning, Tuesday, October 19th
Exactly 6:23 in the morning, Tuesday, October 19th
Exactly 7:02 in the morning, Tuesday, October 19th
Exactly 7:09 at night, Tuesday, October 19th
Exactly 6:50 at night, Wednesday, October 20th
Exactly 6:22 in the morning, Thursday, October 21st
Exactly 11:33 in the morning, Thursday, October 21st
Exactly 11:40 in the morning, Thursday, October 21st
Exactly 2:48 in the afternoon, Thursday, October 21st
Exactly 12:08 in the afternoon, Saturday, October 23rd
Exactly 2:08 in the afternoon, Saturday, October 23rd
Exactly 6:44 in the morning, Monday, October 25th
Exactly 11:28 in the morning, Thursday, October 28th
Exactly 4:14 in the afternoon, Friday, October 29th
Exactly Halloween—2:05, Sunday, October 31st
Exactly 2:52 in the afternoon, Tuesday, November 2nd
Exactly 9:08 at night, Tuesday, November 2nd
Exactly 4:17, Wednesday, November 3rd
Exactly 8:05 in the morning, Thursday, November 4th
Exactly 3:31, Friday, November 5th
Exactly 8:24 in the morning, Monday, November 8th
Exactly 5:53 at night, Wednesday, November 10th
Exactly 6:44 in the morning, Friday, November 12th
Exactly 10:37 at night, Tuesday, November 16th
Exactly 6:22 at night, Wednesday, November 17th
Exactly 10:55 in the morning, Saturday, November 20th
Exactly 12:41 in the afternoon, Monday, November 22nd
Exactly 11:41, Friday, November 26th
Exactly 4:17 in the afternoon, Monday, November 29th
Exactly 12:41 in the afternoon, Tuesday, November 30th
Exactly 2:48 in the afternoon, Wednesday, December 1st
Exactly 1:58 in the afternoon, Saturday, December 4th
Exactly 3:55 in the afternoon, Wednesday, December 8th
Exactly 2:51 in the afternoon, Thursday, December 16th
Exactly 3:03 in the afternoon, Wednesday, December 22nd
Exactly 11:56 at night, Friday, December 24th—Christmas Eve
Exactly 6:16 in the morning, Saturday, December 25th—Christmas Day
Exactly 4:00 in the afternoon, Saturday, December 25th—Christmas Day
Exactly 11:05 in the morning, Sunday, December 26th
Exactly 8:23 at night, Friday, December 31st—New Year's Eve
Exactly 7:07 at night, Wednesday, January 5th
Exactly 11:33 in the morning, Friday, January 7th
Exactly 9:08 in the morning, Saturday, January 8th
Exactly 4:08, Monday, January 10th
Exactly 6:32 in the morning, Tuesday, January 11th
Exactly 8:58 in the morning, Wednesday, January 12th
Exactly 3:02 in the afternoon, Thursday, January 13th
Exactly 3:12 in the afternoon, Friday, January 14th
Exactly 9:18 in the morning, Saturday, January 15th
Exactly 9:44 in the morning, Sunday, January 16th
Exactly 3:50, Monday, January 17th
Exactly 5:14 at night, Tuesday, January 18th
Exactly 5:28, Tuesday, January 18th
Exactly 5:36, Tuesday, January 18th
Exactly 3:31 in the afternoon, Wednesday, January 19th
Exactly 9:32 in the morning, Thursday, January 20th
Exactly 4:48 in the afternoon, Thursday, January 20th
Exactly 2:10 in the afternoon, Friday, January 21st
Exactly 2:58 in the afternoon, Friday, January 21st
Exactly 11:19 in the morning, Sunday, January 23rd
Exactly 4:03, Sunday, January 23rd
Exactly 10:47 in the morning, Monday, January 24th
Exactly 11:02 in the morning, Monday, January 24th
Exactly 7:02 in the morning, Tuesday, January 25th
Exactly 7:57 in the morning, Tuesday, January 25th
Exactly 11:28 in the morning, Tuesday, January 25th
Exactly 10:58 in the morning, Wednesday, January 26th
Exactly 11:07, Wednesday, January 26th
Exactly 4:35 in the afternoon, Thursday, January 27th
6:54 AT NIGHT,
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7TH
The plastic electronic baby won’t stop crying.
My Forever Parents said it’s supposed to be like a real baby but it isn’t. I can’t make it happy. Even when I rock it. Even when I change its diaper and give it a bottle. When I say ush, ush, ush and let it suck on my finger it just looks dumb and screams and screams and screams.
I hold it close one more time and say, Nice and gentle, Nice and gentle, in my brain. Then I try all the things that Gloria used to do whenever I went ape-shit. After that I put my hand behind its head and move up and down on my toes. “All better. All better,” I say. From high to low like a song. Then, “So sorry.”
But still it won’t stop.
I put it down on my bed and when the crying gets louder I start looking for my Baby Doll. The real one. Even though I know it isn’t here. I left it back in Gloria’s apartment but crying babies make me really, really anxious so I have to look. It’s like a rule inside my brain. I look in my drawers. I look in the closet. I look in all the places a Baby Doll might be.
Even in the suitcase.
