Counting Stars

David Almond

ISBN 10: 0340784792 / ISBN 13: 9780340784792

Published by Hodder Children's Books, UK, 2000

About this Item

A fine unread 1st impression in a fine dustwrapper. Signed by the Author on the title page. Seller Inventory # 010079

Bibliographic Details

Title: Counting Stars

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books, UK

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Counting Stars

Review:

In the elegant, hypnotic, thoroughly engaging Counting Stars, British author David Almond, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Kit's Wilderness and a Printz honor for Skellig, shares a collection of stories about his childhood "in a small steep town overlooking the River Tyne." Echoing the bright, witty banter of his large family in pages of fascinating dialogue, Almond recounts tales of his Catholic upbringing (where counting stars in the sky past 100 is a blasphemous attempt to know the unknown), the deaths of his father and sister, poignant stories of local boys and girls with bitter plights, a lonely old woman who keeps her lost baby in a jar, stolen kisses, whispered rumors, dreams of angels, sensual memories of warm grass and sunshine, lemon curd and marmalade. The stories are not chronological, but thematic, and they are simply beautiful. No one captures the mysticism of childhood like Almond, and his readers will be overjoyed to see the ways in which his own history is mirrored in the odd, magical worlds created in his novels. In the author's words, the stories "merge memory and dream, the real and the imagined, truth and lies. And, perhaps, like all stories, they are an attempt to reassemble what is fragmented, to rediscover what has been lost." Almond paints a landscape of the soul and shows his readers the magic of humanity. It seems he can do no less! (Ages 13 and older) --Karin Snelson