Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Fiction | Anthology/Varied Collection | YA | Published in 2019

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“Half a Moon” by Renée WatsonChapter Summaries & Analyses

“Half a Moon” Summary

Content Warning: The stories in this collection explore issues of racism, anti-gay bias, sexual assault, mental health, and suicide.

Raven is a 17-year-old girl living in Portland. Each summer, she attends a summer camp for girls of color in the Portland area, first as a camper and now as a counselor. Raven’s father left her and her mother when she was seven.

The first day of camp, she sees her father’s daughter, Brooke, that he had 10 years ago when Raven’s parents split up. Raven notes that she is one of the only girls there capable of paying full tuition. As Brooke waves to Raven, Raven ignores her.

Over the next few days, Raven witnesses Brooke being bullied, first at lunch, then at the school’s talent competition. Raven contemplates intervening—considering how she should both as a counselor and to be a good person—but instead hesitates, allowing other counselors to do so instead.

The last night of camp, the counselors tell the campers a ghost story about a monster in the woods. When Brooke tells another camper, Mercy, how she is not afraid, Mercy tells her she should be since her weight won’t allow her to outrun the monster, as the girls laugh and make fun of her.

The next morning, Brooke is gone, having gone to find the “monster.” Raven panics, regretting not having stood up for Brooke and protected her. She searches the woods and finds the treehouse where the monster allegedly lives. Inside, she finds Raven with the woman who owns the land. She knows of the monster story and likes to play along with the kids. Raven calls Brooke her sister, and when Brooke corrects it to “half-sister,” the woman informs them that there is no such thing as “half-sister.” She compares it to the “half-moon:” Even though it is not always visible, the full moon is always there.

The following day, the campers are all impressed with what Brooke has done, saying that she ended the curse of the monster by meeting it and surviving. Through it, Raven supports her, talking about how brave she was. She offers to do Brooke’s hair and thinks about what it would be like to have a sister. As the campers all leave, she gets Brooke’s phone number, promising to stay in touch.

“Half a Moon” Analysis

The narrator, Raven, struggles with an internal conflict throughout the course of the text. Because her father left her mother for another woman, she has held resentment toward him ever since—and by extension toward her half-sister Brooke. As Brooke is bullied throughout their days at camp, Raven constantly faces an internal struggle over whether to intervene and help Brooke, as she should, or to hold onto her blame toward Brooke for her father leaving. In one instance when Brooke is being bullied, she considers: “I think maybe I should say something since I am a fake big sister to Mercy and a real big (half) sister to Brooke” (8), noting that Mrs. Thompson would expect her to help as a counselor, while her mother would expect her to help because “it’s not Brooke’s fault [her] dad left” (8). However, Raven fails to intervene here and at multiple points when Brooke is being left out and mistreated by the other campers. The text therefore underscores the experience of misdirected anger: Raven’s feelings in the wake of her father’s neglect get extended to Brooke, even though Brooke is not responsible for her father’s choices.

When Raven and Brooke meet the woman who owns the land, Raven realizes how unfair she has been to Brooke and ultimately makes the decision to help her. The woman explains that there is no such thing as a half-sister, using the moon as a metaphorical representation of that fact: “Look at the sky. Sure, there’s a half moon tonight that we can see, but the full moon is always there” (17). This metaphor, comparing the idea of a half moon to a half-sister, conveys the theme of The Importance of Support Systems. No matter the resentment Raven holds toward Brooke or the name they use for their familial relationship, Raven has a duty to support Brooke as a young girl who is struggling. Raven ultimately changes throughout the course of the text, coming to this realization and supporting Brooke when they return to the other campers. This change gives Brooke the support she needs to finally fit in with the girls and avoid being bullied. Likewise, it gives Raven a new support system, as she begins to see how having a sister can enrich her life.