Ann Howard Creel imagines life in an ancient world and anchors it to the present through the emotional journey of its narrator. Her novel for young adults, “Under a Stand Still Moon,” is an immersion into a culture that is far removed from current experience. It’s a vivid picture, brought to life by the voice of a young woman who moves from carefree childhood to accept the responsibilities of an adult.
The story belongs to Echo, a girl who was born under a stand-still moon. For the Anasazi, the days the moon rises successively between two rock pinnacles are a harbinger of great fortune. To be born at such a time is to be marked with power. For Echo, the expectations are a burden.
Creel paints clear pictures, both of the society and of daily life, of the Anasazi of Chimney Rock. Echo and her family are villagers who look, figuratively and literally, up the mesa to the Great House, home to the High Priests.
The priests have come from a place they call the Center of the World, bringing knowledge of the skies. They tell Echo’s villagers the most auspicious time to plant the crops. They also perform the rituals that are thought to protect the villagers from harm, and there is a clear divide between the society of the priests and those they guide.
Echo is a child of the summer, given to exploring the woods and mesas that surround her village. She is not one to give in easily to the expectations of her family, stealing time from chores to wander with her brother and his best friend, Falcon. As she moves out of childhood, it’s easy to see that Echo is not going to easily buy into the marital expectations her friends seem eager to accept.
It is on one of these summer expeditions with her brother that the 14-year-old’s life changes. They have climbed a mesa, putting them closer to the entrance to the Great House than they are supposed to be, when Echo sees something falling from the cliffs above them. Without thought, she reaches out to catch the bundle. She is shocked to find she holds a child in her arms.
This instinctive moment changes her life. She becomes a local hero, one thought to live up to the promise of her birth name, Born of the Stand Still Moon. Her marital prospects rise, and her family is offered the opportunity to marry their daughter into the world of the high priests. To do so, though, Echo must leave both Falcon, the young man who she’s come through friendship to love, and the house of her mother. The decision to accept duty ahead of love shapes her future.
There is no definitive answer as to why the Anasazi tribe migrated from the southwestern Colorado mesas, leaving signs of great civilization in the Four Corners area. Creel, who has won awards for her previous young-adult works, does a fine job of looking to the shards of history for this story.
Echo, as narrator, engages because she stands so clearly in her own world, but struggles with the same kinds of challenges and questions that young women face, regardless of the era into which they are born.
Her choices and their consequences make for a solid, engaging read.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
Under a Stand Still Moon
By Ann Howard Creel
Brown Barn Books, 183 pages, $8.95, paperback
