Keeping Safe the Stars
When crisis hits, a young girl becomes the only one left to take care of her familyPride, Nightingale and Baby are the Stars. Orphaned and living with their grandfather, Old Finn, in rural Minnesota, the children, like their grandfather, are wary of outsiders. They believe, as Old Finn taught...
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When crisis hits, a young girl becomes the only one left to take care of her familyPride, Nightingale and Baby are the Stars. Orphaned and living with their grandfather, Old Finn, in rural Minnesota, the children, like their grandfather, are wary of outsiders. They believe, as Old Finn taught them, in self-reliance.But then Old Finn falls seriously ill and is taken to the hospital all the way in Duluth, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Pride, as oldest, assumes the lead. Though she makes mistakes, she keeps them afloat; they even earn money for the bus trip to Duluth. But when they finally see Old Finn, he can't walk or even say his own name, and Pride knows her days of keeping safe the Stars are drawing to a close. Self-reliance can't make Old Finn well again. But maybe, just maybe, a secret from Old Finn's past might make a way for them to stay together after all.A poignant story about family and love, Sheila O'Connor has delivered another extraordinary and mesmerizing tale.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780399254598 (0399254595)
Publish date: October 11th 2012
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Pages no: 304
Edition language: English
A fun, charming read. It's younger YA, and filled with the bigger-than-her-age voice that makes Pride taking up the parenting role believable. The pacing was a bit slow, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected, but probably only because I prefer upper YA, and I've read a lot of teens-acting-as-p...
I have a weakness for books likeHomecoming and Where the Lilies Bloom, where resourceful kids have to take care of themselves when adults have left them. Keeping Safe the Stars is in that vein, and quite charming. While I think enjoyment of it may depend on your tolerance for whimsey, I did like it ...
Life has been filled with upheavals for the Stars. Their father died of cancer, their mother died in a car accident. The kids were in foster care until the grandfather they didn't really know came to get them out. He took them to his farm in Minnesota to raise. He was something of a hermit; a former...