Starlight Goes to Town - Hardcover

HARRY ALLARD is the author of the ever-popular Miss Nelson books and the beloved misadventures of the Stupid family. He lives in Oaxaca, Mexico. GEORGE BOOTH is a celebrated cartoonist for The New Yorker and The New York Times who has also illustrated several children’s books, including Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss. He lives in Stony Brook, New York.

Grade 1–3—Allard has concocted a zany tale about a chicken who dreams of a life far from Mr. Brown's rural Tennessee henhouse. To her delight, a chicken fairy godmother turns up and Starlight's life, with each new wish, changes dramatically. Convertibles, airplanes, a trip to Milan, and appearances at fashion shows are suddenly everyday occurrences. However, when her godmother takes a vacation cruise around the world and her nephew takes over, things take a very different turn. Now, with each egg Starlight lays, odd objects (clocks, eggbeaters, and pianos) hatch, and, ever intrepid, she turns her bounty into a permanent yard sale. The tale could well have ended here but Allard gives it another wacky, albeit somewhat puzzling, turn. The final page finds Starlight further flummoxed—she has laid a yacht! But whether her bewilderment is due to the huge boat suddenly launched into her yard or to the chicken fairy godmother peering from a porthole will be up to individual readers to decide. Or perhaps it hints at the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for!" Regardless, some children will undoubtedly get a chuckle over Starlight's crazy escapades. Booth uses fluid watercolors to give depth to his pictures but it is his straggly, New Yorker-style lines that aptly define the characters and inject the comedy. For a more cohesive animal-as-star story, treat children to Robert Kinerk's Clorinda (S & S, 2003), a tale of a cow who dreams of being a ballet dancer.—Barbara Elleman, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Amherst, MA
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