A Star Shines Through

This personal-feeling story of a mother and child who leave their home when a war begins opens with views of the large city the pale-skinned pair once called home, its golden windows beaming warmth onto snow-covered streets. “There was a star-shaped cardboard lamp in our apartment’s kitchen,” the child recalls, “in the evening, I could recognize our window from afar.” In their new city, rain pelts down amid fluorescent lights: “A different language. A different apartment. A different view.... Even Mom is different. Even I’m different.” One day, Mom comes home with a kit to make a star-shaped cardboard lamp—one that glows from the window the same way the one in their old apartment did. “After that, everything around us became a little less different.” Gradually, beauty and hope reveal themselves; one evening, a new moon hangs over the hills as parent and child sit on a curb eating ice cream. Straightforward, heartfelt words and thin-lined, fully imagined drawings from Desnitskaya (On the Edge of the World) give tender voice to one child’s refugee experience. An author’s note concludes. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 5–9. Agent: Debbie Bibo, Debbie Bibo Agency. (Aug.)