Every Soul a Star

"Wherever you end up, I wish you clear skies.  Always."
-Every Soul a Star, Wendy Mass

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

At the same time I was reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, I was listening to the audiobook for Every Soul a Star.  The two together provided a very nice contrast: while Major Pettigrew was very deliberate and mature, Every Soul a Star had young voices with a quick storyline.

Every Soul a Star has three teenage protagonists and the chapters rotate between each of them: Ally is a down-to-earth girl that lives at a campground with her parents and little brother - she is intelligent, thoughtful and sincere; Jack is an insecure kid living with him mom and brother, but he spends a lot of time in his tree house, where he escapes reality by drawing and daydreaming; Bree is the stuck-up girl from other girls' nightmares - she is obsessed with fashion, her figure, and her prospective modeling career.  I enjoyed that in the audio version each of the protagonists was played by a different person, so their voices were differentiated even further than their voices in the book may have allowed.

As the book opens, Ally, Jack and Bree are all living separate lives.  Ally lives happily with her family, her best friends, at the Moon Shadow Campground.  She and her brother, Kenny, are home schooled and love spending time outside, exploring nature.  Most especially, Ally has been blessed with a great love for the skies and spends many hours exploring the stars.  Her family is preparing for the solar eclipse and their preparations have lasted as long as she can remember: she has never been more excited for any single event.

Jack's life is a constant battle between what he wants to do - art - and what he should do - school.  He has failed science and is trying not to think about looming summer school when his science teacher, Mr. Silver, calls and invites him on a trip to see a solar eclipse.  The two week trip would take the place of summer school, so after approximately 2.8 seconds of thought, Jack accepts.  For the first time he can remember, he fits in with a group, as the others on the bus tour think he's wonderful, in spite of being overweight and imaginative.

Bree has just landed quite an impressive job at the mall's make-up store as Junior Consultant.  She is hoping to start a new modeling career and is the proud leader of the "A Clique" at school.  She gathers pictures of models in her spare time and rates herself, and everyone she sees, on a scale from 1-10 every day.  Her world comes crashing down when her parents announce they're moving and she, against her will, is forced to move with them.

The three meet at the Moon Shadow and have two weeks together leading up to the big eclipse that brought them all there.  They struggle to understand how each of the others thinks and they learn to better understand people in general. 

My favorite thing about this book was how much I learned about the stars and eclipses.  After it ended I told my husband I'd really like to go see an eclipse.  I also learned about exoplanets (aided by my husband's documentary-like explanation of how they're found) and meteorites.  Space is such a fun area to learn about and I liked seeing others' enthusiasm for it.

Maybe what I least enjoyed was the teenage voices: I hated being a teenager, which likely carries into this.  :)  It was okay, and a welcome change of scenery from Major Pettigrew, but I don't think I'll ever pick it up again.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

This book was anything but light at the start.  Crispin's father died before his birth, his mom dies just before the starting page and his only friend, the priest, is murdered for associating with Crispin.  I put it down after 30 pages because it seemed to be going nowhere good.  I'm glad I picked it back up: it was a good read.

The setting is Europe in the 1300s and Crispin is one of many peasants living in brutal conditions, forced to work to their death in the limits of their township.  But Crispin is different, as hinted from the very beginning, and the book chronicles his many escapes from those seeking to kill him because of his unknown uniqueness.This book would be great for a first lesson in foreshadowing: within the first quarter of the book it was clear that Crispin had royal blood in him (though it took him 200 more pages to figure that out) but there was still an adventure as it was unclear who to trust and what would happen next.

The ending was not as I imagined, though perhaps fitting given the characters.  Perhaps above all it was enlightening for me to read about the situations of the peasants and lords in the Middle Ages; though I recognize it is fiction, reading about the times helps me better appreciate what the real situation must have been.