A Handful of Stars

by Cynthia Lord

Lord, C. (2015). A handful of stars. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

12 year old Lily lost her mother in a car accident when she was only two and lives with her grandparents in Maine with one of the only things she has left of her mother, her dog Lucky who is getting very old and almost completely blind.  All Lily wants is to raise enough money to pay for a special surgery for Lucky to try to restore his sight, even though there are no guarantees and surgery can be very difficult on an older dog.  When Lucky slips out of his collar one day and dashes across the blueberry fields and almost into the road, Lily is afraid she may never be able to catch him.  However, as luck would have it, a young migrant worker (Salma) happens to witness the commotion and entices the dog with her peanut butter sandwich allowing Lily to catch up to him.  Lily and Salma's friendship begins to blossom, just as her relationship with her former best friend Hannah starts to wane.  Salma teaches Lily about art and migrant life as she helps her paint bee houses to raise money for Lucky's surgery.  And Lily helps Salma with her endeavor to be the first migrant worker to enter and win the Blueberry Queen pageant which has a $5,000 savings bond prize that she plans to use for college.  Lily learns a lot about life, friendship, and loss in this coming of age story that has a strong multicultural element.  Young readers age 9-12 and dog lovers will enjoy this Bluebonnet Award nominee.

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