Audiobook ARC Review:

Moonleapers by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Read by Eva Kaminsky

Publication Date: September 16, 2025

Summary from NetGalley:

When Maisie’s mom gives her an old phone, Maisie can’t believe her luck—finally, she can keep up with everyone at school! Unfortunately, her mom also tells her that the whole family will be moving to spend the summer taking care of Maisie’s great-aunt Hazel. Maisie’s only getting a phone because she’ll be responsible for her younger siblings during the entire trip. With that, Maisie is ready to give the phone back.

Then the first puzzling text comes in.

Between the mystery texts and a not-completely-blank book from Great-Aunt Hazel, Maisie finds herself thrown into the world of moonleapers. Will she be able to learn more about the secretive group, and—gulp—help them accomplish their crucial mission in time?

ARC provided by HarperAudio Children’s via Netgalley for an honest review.

Confession:

I really enjoyed this very different take on time travel and Multiverse theory. It was well done and there were some delightful characters as well as some nice themes of family and the use of technology and the teen’s feelings of isolation. I also enjoyed the audiobook, the narrator did a great job.

I really enjoyed Eva Kaminsky’s narration of this novel. She very much sounded like a thirteen year old. She did a good job of getting the various emotions that a young teen goes through as well as the attitudes they can get. She also did a nice job with the adults and the other kids voices as well. All around it was delightful to listen to her.

I really liked Maise and found her easy to relate too. She has always felt like an outsider to her classmates. She has friends, but no one she would consider a close friend. Her parents are wonderful, if a bit inattentive. I did enjoy her discovery of her Moonleaper abilities, she had just the right amount of shock as well as excitement at what she was able to do. Maisie is a smart young lady and she takes to her new role well. I also really enjoyed her two animal sidekicks, Cat the Great and Little Dog. They were awesome and certainly more than ordinary animals.

The story was very intriguing. From the start you can sort of tell that this world is not quite right, not quite the world we are living in. But as the story progresses and the mission of the Moonleapers comes to light you start to understand the world a bit better. There is time travel of a sort. Slight spoiler coming if you want to skip this. She is able to communicate to a younger Aunt Hazel through her phone, and with a future relative as well. I found this really an interesting way to have time travel without actually going to the past. The idea of a Multiverse is also introduced and done in a way that I think kids will understand.

Overall a really nice middle grade story. Lots of history is discussed and I learned a few things, like where the word Bluetooth came from. I also liked the Author’s note at the end where she talks about some of the true historical facts in the story. Highly recommend this one for any middle schooler who likes time travel or the idea of a multiverse.