Thunder Moon by Ruth Bryant

Thunder Moon is a fictionalized true story. The narrative is a difficult one, telling of a little girl who is preyed upon and raped by her neighbor. I decided to utilize the psychological phenomenon confabulation to tell this story similarly to a fairy tale. This allows the reader access to a child's way of understanding and illustrates how a child might make sense of incomprehensible horror. The structure was inspired by Philip Zimmermann's Shelter and provides a panoramic view of the lonely night landscape in which the story takes place. The accordion pages move in turn with the pages of text, enabling the viewer to progress through that scenery as they do the story. The title, Thunder Moon, is one of the names used by Native American communities to signify the full moon in July, marking a particular point in time. For this book, it points to the way in which trauma can highlight certain portions of memories while concealing certain others.