Star Stuff

by Rand Burkert (Author) Chris Raschka (Illustrator)

Star Stuff
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

An original, out-of-this-world fable about friendship, teamwork, and persistence, illustrated by double Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka.

It's up to Giovanni and Lorenzo, Sky Repair Specialists, to fill the sky with stars. One night, on the job, Lorenzo gets stuck in a nebula! Giovanni calls out for help to the constellations....Find out what it will take to rescue his friend in this imaginative story featuring Chris Raschka's brilliant, luminescent illustrations.

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Hardcover
$19.99

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Kirkus

A whimsical tale that creatively introduces three constellations. Dreamlike and quirky.

None

Raschka's dynamic watercolor illustrations swirl and swoop across the page.

Publishers Weekly

Giovanni the farmer and his donkey, Lorenzo, are "Specialists in Sky Repair" in this celestial story that features constellations coming to the rescue. Through lightly rhyming lines by Burkert, Giovanni and Lorenzo are described roaming the cosmos, looking for holes and filling them from a basket of "star stuff." When Lorenzo gets his foot stuck in a nebula ("Swirls of dust and plumes of gas"), the donkey can't escape until friendly, blue-hued constellations--Orion the Hunter, Cancer the Crab, and Taurus the Bull--appear one by one, cooperating to pull the donkey free. With a bold brush, bright colors, and rounded, friendly looking figures, Raschka mixes warm-hued elements, including pale-skinned Giovanni's feathered Tyrolean hat and Lorenzo's red bridle, with blue-lit constellations to create an unexpected collision of the rustic and the interstellar. Rather than writing about them as scientific phenomena, Burkert personifies astral entities as old friends in this folktale-flavored turn on the intergalactic. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"A whimsical tale that creatively introduces three constellations. Dreamlike and quirky." — Kirkus Reviews

"This is both an enjoyable introduction to the constellations and an imaginative bedtime story . . . The loosely rhyming text is a pleasure to read aloud. Raschka's dynamic watercolor illustrations swirl and swoop across the page." — Horn Book Magazine

Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780062858177
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Michael Di Capua Books
Publication date
October 24, 2023
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
JUV022000 - Juvenile Fiction | Legends, Myths, & Fables | General
Library of Congress categories
Picture books
Legends
Stars
Mythical animals
Constellations

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