Simply stated lessons about friendships, both fleeting and forming, blend beautifully with little lessons about tiny blue bees and Wabanaki blueberry legends. A mature little girl, Lily (because “Tigerlily” is a weed, not a name) spends her summers helping in her grandparents’ general store….which is to say the only store in a blueberry-harvesting Maine town busy with migrant workers, locals and tourists from America and Canada. Painting bee houses at her very own table, Lily earns money for an...

Cynthia Lord is brilliant. How does she keep writing these beautiful, touching stories?! So much wisdom in this one about home, family, art, loss, love, moving forward, diversity, courage, letting go, friendship, identity - on and on. Some of my favorite pearls of wisdom: "I think art can take ordinary things and show them to you like it's the first time you've ever seen them," she (Salma)continued. "And you realize that even ordinary things aren't really ordinary at all.""That's something we ca...

What could be better than a story involving summer, dogs, a friendship and blueberries?! A Handful of Stars is a heartwarming story of an unlikely friendship and a summer to remember. I love Salma's character and wish I could learn a little more about her life and family! Perhaps a sequel, Cynthia Lord?

A HANDFUL OF REASONSTO LOVE A HANDFUL OF STARS#5-This middle grade novel has the best cover. I dare you not to peek inside—that dog, the lone blueberry on his nose, oh my!#4-Once inside, you’ll find a fresh, intricately-woven story with themes of friendship, loss, living outside the box, being true to oneself, prejudice, poverty, independence, bravery. So much packed into this character-rich, well-plotted novel.#3-MAINE! If you love Maine, you’ll be immersed in an original Down East story set am...

This is a heartwarming story of friendship, family, and summer. I liked how it showed the changes that occur in friendships without having demonize a girl for liking feminine things and being into boys. I've been encountering too many of those lately. It is also a short book so a good one to give to readers who are still turned off my longer novels.

There are certain authors that attract my attention every time they have something new come out. I don't even ask what it's about, I just order it, because I have that much faith that the book is going to be good. Such was the case with Cynthia Lord's A Handful of Stars. After Rules, Touch Blue and Half a Chance, The Shelter Pet Squad and let's not forget Hot Rod Hamster, I knew I wasn't taking too great a risk, and I wasn't wrong. I'll admit. I did question my decision when I first got the book...

The bookseller I purchased this from said this was a wonderful middle grade book about big issues without being a "big issue" book. She couldn't be more correct. This cute and deceptively simple story features twelve year old Lily and her old dog Lucky, who live in Maine near a blueberry farm. One day Lucky gets away and crosses into the blueberry fields where a little girl Salma is working her plot. Salma catches Lucky by giving her a peanut butter sandwich. When Lily takes Salma's family a th

The last couple chapters are five-star worthy, but the rest of the book made it just a three star for me. Super disappointing because I actually cried at the end! I think this was just too short to have the impact that it had the potential to.

This is a lovely book about a young girl learning about friendship and life: through her blind dog and a new friend who is a migrant worker picking blueberries in the area where she lives. There is both sadness and sweetness in this middle-grade children's book, and a lot to learn for us all!

This story shows how compassion, determination, and friendship can make a difference in one's life. The ending is somewhat predictable, but still heartwarming. I liked that the author did not shy away from sensitive discussions a about difficult subjects: the living conditions of migrant workers, the rights of children to receive consistent education, no matter where they live, the tendency of society to see beauty in those who look more like us, and caring for elderly animals.Overall, it was a

How could I not pick up a book with a cover that has a black lab balancing a blueberry on its nose? Well, I couldn't. Especially since it's the latest book by Cynthia Lord. For me, she's definitely one of those authors whose latest book I will always look forward to and want to read as soon as it comes out. I loved the first three books of hers that I read, Rules, Touch Blue, and Half a Chance, so I knew I would love this one also. I wasn't disappointed with this sweet story of love and friendsh...

I don't think there's a Cynthia Lord book that I don't like. The layers to the story stick with the reader long after, like the memory of time well-spent with a good friend. A Handful of Stars is about friendship. First we have the friendship of a beloved animal companion, who has reached the age where he has special needs, but is still a beloved friend. Then there is the friendship that once had the friends two peas in a pod. But the pod has broadened, and the peas are less close, yet still con...

Richie’s Picks: A HANDFUL OF STARS by Cynthia Lord, Scholastic Press, May 2015, 192p., ISBN: 978-0-545-70027-6“Seems like I’m not here, it’s like I don’t mean nothingLike glass, I’m clear almost like you can see straight through me”-- Jennifer Hudson, “Invisible”“‘Do you have to live here to enter?’ Salma asked.Why’d she ask that? I tried to catch Salma’s eye, but she was looking at Hannah.‘No, last year there was a girl from New Hampshire in the pageant,’ Hannah said. ‘It’s easy to enter. You j...

Change, friendship, dogs, Maine and blueberries. A wonderful story from beginning to (get your hanky ready) end. Schools in any community that hosts migrant farm workers should make this a must-read.

The star is unfair because I just couldn't be bothered to read this. It seemed thoroughly predictable, didactic, inauthentic, and not that well written. Just not feeling it

Once again, a Cynthia Lord middle grade novel brings me to tears. A heart-warming story of friendship, differences, the power of imagination and courage. I love how Cindy combines a setting in her home state (which she knows well) with a community I know she had to research to get all the details just right. Among the blueberry rakers are migrant workers from all over the US (and Canada) and having the protagonist's new friend be a bilingual hispanic girl who is a raker, introduces readers to a

This is another book that I read (via audio) where I didn't pay enough attention and ask enough questions. A twitter friend Sujei, pointed out a few things that made me think. Salma (a friend of the main character) speaks Spanish and her family are migrant workers. She says she lives in Florida part of the year, but we never know the country her family came from. Why? She is super helpful to Lily but as Sujei pointed out, she works well as a prop for Lily but isn't a fully developed character.Wh...

This isn't a bad book, but it's too short and underdeveloped to be a good one, and the writing style is stilted (which is especially noticeable when this is read back to back with another, better book). I like the central idea of the story and I appreciate the representation very much (view spoiler)[(and I found Hannah's winning - and the way it was barely touched by the narrator, as if it hurt too much, to be the most realistic part of the plot) (hide spoiler)] but I feel like the story deserve...

“It’s scary to try something different when you don’t know how it’ll work out, but that’s when the best things can happen. The things that surprise you and change you. Those things can make you different.”This book was very cute, and recommend. it was a cute book about friendship, and DOGS (blind). kind of boring in some parts “And it takes an artist, someone who can look past the ordinariness, to remind us how special they really are.” Being able to create beauty from your imagination is extrao...

So many wonderful messages for our students in this book. I love the relatable characters that Lord shares in her stories. I can think of many of my readers who would love this story of friendship and bits of bravery. Another excellent book from Rules author, Cynthia Lord.