The Life History of a Star - Softcover

Easton, Kelly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689852703 ISBN 13: 9780689852701

Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2002

Synopsis

Supernova
Kristin Folger feels like she's on another planet. Her body keeps changing shape. Her mother wants her to dress like a girl. Her best friend's dating a weirdo. And there's a ghost in the attic that no one wants to talk about.
In the era of Watergate, the Vietnam War, and David Bowie, fourteen-year-old Kristin navigates the external and internal changes that come at top speed. The Life History of a Star is Kristin's sometimes comical, sometimes cynical, always thoughtful diary about what her life has been like since the ghost arrived. It takes a lot of time and an unforgettable family therapy session for Kristin to begin to learn who the ghost was -- and who he still is. And where on earth she fits in.
Caught up in the politics of her time and in the middle of a family who doesn't always understand her, Kristin makes a memorable journey through the byways of adolescence -- all the way to the stars and back again.

About this title

Review:

It's 1973, and Kristin Folger's diary is full of the dubious joys of being 14. Her body is doing weird things without her permission ("A giant betrayal! ... My hips have spread apart like two wishbones being pulled from either side"), her parents' constant bickering is getting on her nerves ("Are there any adults who want to take responsibility for their lives? I think they're a bunch of blamers"), and school is just plain gross ("High school. Cesspool. What more can I say?"). But it's what Kristin doesn't write about that bothers her the most, and that's the "ghost" who lives upstairs--the howling, drooling ghost who used to be her brother David before he came back from Vietnam, who's now just a crippled shadow living behind a locked door. Growing up is hard. For Kristin, dealing with the treacherously changing landscapes of school and home, and her beloved brother's zombielike state, it feels almost impossible: "Now there's a canyon between me and everybody else. And all I can do is fall into the space between." Using her journal as a buffer against a world gone crazy, Kristin tries to close that canyon--one page at a time.

The Life History of a Star is a heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting chronicle of a wounded family during a confusing time, as seen through the eyes of a wise woman/child. Anyone who is or has ever been 14 will quickly find him- or herself walking the proverbial mile in Kristin Folger's platforms. First-time author Kelly Easton has written a "star," indeed. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

About the Author:

Kelly Easton is the author of Walking on Air and The Life History of a Star, which was a Teen Readers Book Sense Top Ten book and a Golden Kite Award Honor winner. She has published stories in such literary journals as the Connecticut Review, the Paterson Literary Review, Iris, and Frontiers. Kelly Easton lives in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon Pulse
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0689852703
• ISBN 13: 9780689852701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200