With her parents going through a difficult time, Anna tries to hold them together, if only to avoid having to live apart from her twin brother. She is the only person he can fully communicate with. He is non-verbal and struggles with new situations or situations that have heightened emotions. Anna hatches a plan to get the family to Italy for her dance festival, hoping that will keep them together. But the holiday begins to seem less and less likely.

A heart-wrenching, beautiful story.

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📖 BOOK REVIEW 📖

Swimming on the Moon by Brian Conaghan

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Twelve year old Anna is not enjoying life. Even though she has her dancing to look for are to, she isn’t coping with the thought of her parents splitting up. She is worried she might have to live separately from her twin, Anto. She knows they won’t cope living apart.

This is the first book I’ve read that really normalises disability. Anto is autistic and struggles to get across his feelings and thoughts but Anna totally gets him. She understands his every emotion and can interpret everything he wants to convey. She never treats him any differently from her friends. It is the perfect and usual brother sister relationship and the best representation I have ever seen.

However the rest of the book didn’t really work for me. I wanted to see their trip to Italy but it felt like all they ever did was talk about it. Apart from Anna and Anto, the rest of the characters felt one dimensional, which was a shame because this book could’ve been amazing. The plot felt non existent and I found myself losing interest by the end of the book.

Brian Conaghan is a talented writer and I’ve adored other books by him, but this one really didn’t work for me. With such perfect representation of disability, it could have been so good.

Thanks to @netgalley & @bloomsburychildrens for the review copy.

Wowser what a gorgeous book, heartbreaking and funny in places it’s thought provoking narrative grips you until the last page. A true gem of a novel right here.

Swimming on the Moon will be a book many young children relate to. Likeable characters that will resonate easily with readers.

Highly effective look at the life of a Scottish twelve year old, whose parents are fighting so badly with each other both she and her non-verbal twin brother are scared of being split up by some divorce arrangement. She latches on to the fact her street dance crew have won a place to perform in competition in Italy, and hopes the sunnier prospect of that holiday will be enough to keep the family together.

People worried about any 'lived experience' failings need not bother, this smacks of perfect veracity to my mind when dealing with the autistic Anto. Just as impressive was the author's understanding of the girl, Anna's, life – with incidental details like her mother checking up on bra cup size changes at inappropriate times nailing her concerns. I didn't see any falsity in an extended dialogue scene when someone discovers the truth about Anto's behaviour, either.

So why is this just four stars? I certainly appreciated it, and many of the target audience will too, but I did get the sense of it feeling a little worthy at times. Only slightly, mind – this is a book that is distinctive and highly educational, bringing the collapse of a nuclear family with the added concern of autism right to the focus of our attention. But at the same time it is about that and not an unearthly amount else, making this potentially feel a little small. I can see some readers taking against this intimate style of narrative, where the core of the book is so domestic, the cast list is small, and the story so obviously limited in the number of ways it can go. That said, there are a hell of a lot of ways this could have ended up inferior to what we have here, so it certainly remains worthy of our attention.

Anna and Anto are twins. Anna is neuro typical and Anto is neuro diverse and non verbal. The family has devised a method of communication for Anto using different coloured lego bricks. Recently they have been getting anxious because Mum and Dad are arguing a lot. Listening at the top of the stairs, the twins are alarmed to discover that their parents are planning to sp,it up, each having a twin. How will Anna be able to help Anto if that happens?
Anna has another love - street dance and it's where she can just be herself.
A great insight into the pressures that children feel as families break up and also how neuro diversity affects family life. Beautifully told, I really felt for the whole family. Definitely a book for the school library. Aged 9-13.

Heartbreaking, poignant, thought provoking: these are the words that come to my mind after reading this book.
It moved me to tears, it made me smile, and learned something more about living with a non verbal neurodivergence.
I think it's an important book because it deals with the trauma of the divorce as seen by the children but it's also full of hopes and dreams.
Loved it, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Families can be complicated and the children can sometimes be protected with what is really happening around them to the very last minute. The relationships that surround Anna & Anto are fracturing, and the future is uncertain. Anna just wants to focus on a dance competition, but something is unravelling with her parents, and it’s threatening the important status quo that her brother relies on.

I found the relationship with the twins to be a massive draw in this story, it pulled me into the family drama and tugged at the heartstrings. The connection that Anna had with her non-verbal brother Anto was very appealing. The love that they have for each shone through each challenge that they managed to overcome. I think this will be an eye-opener for some readers in a way that will make them learn and more considerate to a neurodivergent person.

The only thing that I wasn’t sure about was the daydreams by Anna which I sometimes found distracting but I understood why they were part of the story. The communication method with Lego was very clever and I loved it

Wow, In a Way This Kinda Hits Home for me as Anna & Anto's Story Reminds me of What I'm Going Through at the Moment with My Parents, All in All this is A Fantastic Story!
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Book).

Anna and Anto are 12 year old twins. Anna is a normal 12 year old but her brother, Antony (Anto) is severally autistic and she is so very protective of him and his feelings. She comes across in the story as such a lovely girl with only his feelings being paramount. Anto cannot communicate and Anna has devised a chart for using coloured lego bricks as a language Anto can use to share his feelings – clever and thoughtful. Things are not going well in the family with the parents arguing so much in the evenings which causes Anna upset but also because of the way it is affecting Anto. She decides that the parents cannot separate and sets about trying to keep the family together. Anna is in a dance competition in Italy and she decides this is the ideal opportunity for her parents to remember why they married in the first place. The story continues with Anna doing her best to keep the peace, shield Anto from the drama, practice her dance moves but eventually her world crashes down when she confronts her parents and insists on finding out whether they are staying together, her most worrying part being how Anto will deal with the drama and will they be separated. The can of worms is open and this makes the story more insightful for the reader. The book continues in a lovely way with Anna daydreaming that all will be well and I liked this interludes. A very sweet story and gives insight to how life must be in a situation such as the one for this family

Family breakdown and autism as seen through a 12-year-old lens.

Anna is adorable. She's trying to hold her family together. Twin brother Anto is autistic and non-verbal. They are 'a pair', who have worked out a means of communicating using lego bricks. Mum and Dad, not long ago so in love are now at each other's throats. Anna is desperate to keep the family together.

Maybe the Italy trip she's going on, for a dance competition will provide the holiday and family time they need to bond and fix everything? A girl can dream.

I was impressed with how the author handled the issues with Anna's parents, very honestly showing their anger and loss of control regarding infidelity and as parents of a differently-abled child. Anto is also well-drawn, with Anna highlighting for dance friends (but also for the reader) just why he's so amazing really, but also what in his head makes him different and struggling in everyday life. It was a clear picture. And her love as a sister was admirable.

I've read most of Conaghan's back catalogue and always pay attention when I see a new title of his. He covers hard-hitting topics for young people, doesn't shy away from their pain or worries, and creates realistic stories and characters that contemporary readers will identify with.

For ages 10-14.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

This is an interesting read. Anna is a girl with a twin, Anto, who is non-verbal. Their relationship and the description of her feelings towards him are what make the book stand out. The conflict of her deep love, understanding and empathy for him alongside her frustration and even anger really helps the reader to understand how, no matter how much we love someone, we still might get not want them around at times. Probably something we’ve all experienced to some extent.
Family life is under pressure as mum and dad are always arguing, so when Anna’s dance crew win a competition to dance in Italy she sees this as the way to bring the family back together.
There are some daydreaming sequences that totally threw me. They are very detailed and I kept mistaking them for part of the main story and they just didn’t make sense. It did spoil it a bit. I had a proof Kindle copy and maybe in print the dream bits will look different to the main text.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC

I really enjoyed this and liked how it tackled the issues it covered in a sensitive and relatable way. I loved the relationship between the twins and seeing how they managed to communicate in such a different way to help Anto. I also loved that the main character was a reader and the glimpses at her bookshelves we got through the book.

Anna and Anto are 12 year old twins whose parents are arguing a lot. Told from Anna's point of view we read of her struggle to come to terms with what this might mean for her and her brother. Anto is non verbal and communicates through a complex Lego brick colour system. Brian Conaghan has written an excellent portrayal of how the world appears to Anto and how Anna copes with his, and her own, understanding of her family situation. As an adult I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to parents and teachers for P7 and S1 stage. Many thanks to netgalley, author and publisher for an advance copy of Swimming On the Moon.

This was a great book, thank you for the opportunity to read it. Really looking forward to their next title.

Anna and Anto are 12 year old twins, very close and both living through the nightly arguments of their parents, sitting at the top of the stairs worrying and comforting one another.
Anna is a dancer and is awaiting decisions on who will be chosen to go to Italy on a dancing tour. She is also a dreamer and constantly daydreams perfect scenarios of her happy family in the sun and luxury of Italy.
Anto is autistic and non-verbal, so they have devised a means of communication via Lego bricks which the whole family use and charts which just the twins use, but Anna is the one person who thoroughly understands Anto.
When Anna is brought together with the star of the dance group and another girl so far removed from Anna’s usual friendship circle she learns more than she anticipated and matters come to a head at home.
A great portrayal of one boy’s experience of autism and how this impacts family life and the resulting gains.