My Friend, the Starfinder - Hardcover

Lyon, George Ella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1416927387 ISBN 13: 9781416927389

Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2008

Synopsis

Dazzled,
a little girl listens
to her old neighbor's story
of following a falling star
when he was a boy.

He found it, too.
He put it in her hands.

But that's not all
the starfinder has to tell.

One day something
found him.

It's a story
too good to keep.

See for yourself.

About this title

About the Author:

George Ella Lyon is the author of Trucks Roll!, Planes Fly!, and Boats Float!, cowritten with her son Benn. Among George Ella’s other books are the ALA Notable All the Water in the World and What Forest Knows. A novelist and poet, she lives with her family in Lexington, Kentucky. Visit her online at GeorgeEllaLyon.com.

Stephen Gammell is the beloved illustrator of more than fifty books for children, including Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman, which received the Caldecott Medal, and two Caldecott Honor Books: The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant, Where the Buffaloes Begin by Olaf Baker, and The Secret Science Project That Almost Ate Our School by Judy Sierra. Mr. Gammell lives with his wife, Linda, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

From Booklist:

Lyon and Gammell, the duo responsible for the memorable Come a Tide (1990), take on more feats of nature as a girl listens to a neighbor tell how, when he was a boy, he met up with a star and rainbow. Using his signature color washes for the parts of the story set in the present, Gammell moves to shades of gray when the story goes back in time. When the boy spots a star shooting across the sky, he follows it. He picks up the rock, which glints with gold, and keeps it until, as an adult, he gives it to the girl. Another time, the boy, lifted into the sky, starts turning colors—purple, red, green, yellow; he’s at the end of a rainbow. He can’t bring the rainbow home, of course, but he can tell the story. Lyon’s prose is lyrical as always (“cool / warm / striped / air”), though why she describes the comet as smooth as an egg (it is jagged in the picture) is unclear. Gammell’s energetic art, a mix of precise lines and hue-soaked swirls and shapes, captures both the everyday and the otherworldiness of the story. That said, some odd choices have been made here. By never showing the Starfinder’s adult face, the character seems strange, even menacing. Then there’s the abrupt ending, though an afterword helps finish the story. Despite the picture-book format, this isn’t for preschoolers, and even older children, who may be drawn by the dreamy premise played out in the evocative art, may be confused by the goings-on. Grades K-2. --Ilene Cooper

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1416927387
• ISBN 13: 9781416927389
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Gammell Stephen