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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607001676355 | Juvenile Fiction | PATERSO | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
Angel Morgan needs help. Daddy is in jail, and Mama has abandoned her and her little brother, leaving them with their great-grandmother. Grandma is aged and poor, and doesn't make any attempt to care for the children--that's left up to Angel, even though she is not yet twelve. The only bright spot in Angel's existence is the Star Man, a mysterious stranger who appears on clear nights and teaches her all about the stars and planets and constellations. "We'remade out of the same stuff as the stars," he tells her.
Eventually, Grandma warms to the children and the three begin to cobble together a makeshift family. Then events in Angel's life take yet another downturn, and she must once again find a way to persevere.
Katherine Paterson's keen sensitivity and penetrating sense of drama bring us a moving story of throwaway children, reminding us of the incredible resilience of childhood and the unquenchable spirit that, in spite of loss, struggles to new beginnings.
Author Notes
Katherine Paterson was born in Qing Jiang, Jiangsu, China in 1932. She attended King College in Bristol, Tennessee and then graduate school in Virginia where she studied Bible and Christian education.
Before going to graduate school, she was a teacher for one year and after graduate school, she moved to Japan to be a missionary.
Her first book, Sign of the Chrysanthemum was published in 1991. Other titles to follow included The Bridge to Terabithia and Jacod Have I Loved which both won her a Newbery Award, The Great Gilly Hopkins, Lyddie and The Master Puppeteer.
In addition to the Newbery Award, she is the recipient of numerous others including the Scott O'Dell Award, the National Book Award for Children's Literature, the American Book Award, the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults Award and the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year Award. She was also honored with the Hans Christian Anderson Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-9-Despite the fact that Angel Morgan's father is in prison, her mother is unreliable, and she's often in charge of her seven-year-old brother, the middle school girl finds solace in astronomy when she learns that we are all made from The Same Stuff As Stars (Clarion, 2002). Set in Vermont, Katherine Paterson's novel revolves around Angel's resourcefulness when she faces adult challenges, and her determination to keep herself and her brother out of foster care. The 11-year-old takes on even more burdens when her mother abandons the children with their crusty, but loving great-grandmother. In her new home, Angel's uncle teaches her about the stars, and she meets a kind and generous librarian. Though the resilient girl is grateful for these positive influences, she also has to face the death of her uncle, her brother's return to their mother, and a jailbreak visit from her father. After a serious accident, the siblings are reunited and their mother promises to be a more responsible parent. Narrator Alyssa Bresnahan gives each character a distinctive voice. She is equally adept as a whining child, a wise-cracking woman, and a cantankerous senior citizen. The sound quality is good, and the case and cassettes are sturdy and well marked. The novel is packed with enough problems to engage middle school listeners, but there's a measure of hope to reassure them. Both components make this a valuable purchase for school and public libraries.-Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Few authors explore the theme of what defines a family with more compassion and sensitivity than Paterson (The Great Gilly Hopkins; Flip-Flop Girl), as she demonstrates once again in this contemporary novel set in rural Vermont. Eleven-year-old Angel Morgan, despite her youth, is the head of her family. With a father in jail for robbery and murder, and Verna, her mother, too preoccupied with herself to care for anyone else (she once "forgot" her children in an all-night diner), Angel looks out for her seven-year-old brother. She keeps a house key around her neck and taxi money in her sock, "just in case." Before long, Verna proves Angel's fears well founded, when she drops the children off at their great-grandmother's house and leaves in the night. Paterson enters Angel's consciousness through a third-person narrative, revealing, for example, how the girl rationalizes Verna's erratic behavior ("How could anyone expect her to know about being a good mother? She couldn't remember having a mother of her own") as well as the way Grandma's (as they call her) ramshackle house transforms into a welcoming haven with a nearby library and a pasture with a view of the night sky. At the novel's center is Angel's blossoming friendship with a mysterious "star man" whom Grandma calls "Santy Claus." He leaves food and chopped wood at the door, and introduces the heroine to galaxies beyond their own. Angel's intelligence and abiding trust in the direst of situations will convince readers that, despite the unresolved ending, she will rise above her circumstances. Ages 10-13. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Table of Contents
| 1 Wishing on a Star | p. 1 |
| 2 The Saturday Visit | p. 14 |
| 3 "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" | p. 22 |
| 4 The Other Side of the Mountain | p. 37 |
| 5 Hansel and Grizzle | p. 46 |
| 6 Santy Claus | p. 55 |
| 7 Star Man | p. 65 |
| 8 Treasure Hunt | p. 74 |
| 9 A Is for Astronomy | p. 86 |
| 10 The Swan | p. 98 |
| 11 Miss Liza of the Library | p. 111 |
| 12 Know the Stars | p. 125 |
| 13 To School We Go | p. 138 |
| 14 Draco the Dragon | p. 151 |
| 15 Polaris | p. 158 |
| 16 Consider the Heavens | p. 166 |
| 17 Galileo Galilei | p. 179 |
| 18 Falling Stars | p. 194 |
| 19 Stardust to Stardust | p. 207 |
| 20 Take Something Like a Star | p. 221 |
| 21 Shining Stars | p. 231 |