SEE YOU ON A STARRY NIGHT by Lisa Shroeder

A good story about new beginnings and making friends.

Description from the publisher:

Juliet has just moved to a beachside town with her newly separated mother and her moody older sister. When she meets their new neighbor, Emma, the girls form an instant bond. Emma's big family takes Juliet in, and the girls have fun together, starting with the night they throw bottles with secret messages into the sea.

Then someone writes back to Juliet's message. An email arrives, inviting her to join the Starry Beach Club. All she has to do is make someone else's wish come true.

So Juliet and Emma set off to help as many other people as they can. It's fun! But as Juliet spends more and more time away from home, enjoying her new town and Emma's family more than her own mom and sister, she starts feeling lost. It's been easy to find others to help. But maybe her star would shine a little brighter if she brought it closer to home.

See You on a Starry Night, written by Lisa Shroeder, was published by Scholastic Press in 2018.

Why you want to read this book… 

This is a lovely story about new beginnings – or how to cope when your life completely changes. Juliet’s friendships and feelings are portrayed in a realistic way. This novel follows the everyday experiences of Juliet, but it’s never boring. Small mysteries, interesting details and conflicts create a richly textured story. I appreciated the connections to the art of Vincent Van Gogh.

Opening:

Casper, my old, white, kitty, sat perched on my nightstand, studying me like I might unpack a can of tuna any second. Poor cat. No tuna here, just all of the moving boxes marked Juliet.

If you’re a writer… 

One of the cool (and quirky) things about this book is Juliet’s habit of making lists! A great model if you’re interested in incorporating lists into a novel. I also really liked the way memories are incorporated in the story to reveal more about her character. Here's part of one of Juliet's lists:

Some of my other wishes

·        World peace

·        Life on Mars

·        For animals to live forever

·        A library in every neighborhood

If you’re a teacher…

There are so many great possibilities for activities related to this book:  writing a message in a bottle, writing lists using the headings of Juliet’s lists as prompts, finding out the meanings of interesting words, and planning a wish come true for someone like Juliet and Emma do in this story.  I really liked the emphasis on doing good deeds and how caring the girls were in this story.

But the more time that went by, the more I knew the chances of that happening were really, really small.

Smaller than a ladybug’s wing.

Smaller than a watermelon seed.

Smaller than the tip of a fine-point pen.

Some related music for inspiration (or to use as a writing prompt):

Start your school year off right with a list of good books to read from Marvelous Middle Grade Monday at Greg Pattridge's blog.