The Stars of Whistling Ridge
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This enchanting story about magic, family, and the meaning of home from the award-winning author of Where the Watermelons Grow is perfect for fans of Corey Ann Haydu and Natalie Lloyd.
Ivy Mae Bloom is almost thirteen years old, her name is almost a complete sentence, and her family’s RV is almost a home. That’s one too many “almosts” for Ivy. She desperately wants a place to put down roots, but it’s her mama’s job as a fallen star to tend the magic underpinning the world—a job that’s kept Ivy’s family living on the road since before Ivy was born.
After Ivy steals Mama's entire supply of wish jars in the hopes of finding a place to call home, disaster strands her family in Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, with Mama's star sisters. Ivy falls for Whistling Ridge immediately—she just needs to convince her parents to stay.
But something is draining the magic from the town, and the star sisters can't pinpoint it. Ivy and her new friends find a clue in Whistling Ridge's history that might explain the mysterious threat...but if Whistling Ridge’s magic is fixed, Mama will need to move on. Ivy is faced with an impossible decision: How can she help the star sisters lift the curse if it means losing her best chance at a forever home?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With a majority white cast and a dash of fantasy, Baldwin (Beginners Welcome) deftly pens a tribute to the places called home and the rigors of growing up. Ivy Mae Bloom, 12, wants nothing more to put down roots, in direct opposition to her family's highly nomadic lifestyle of traversing North America in a Winnebago named Martha. Along with her magic-managing, wish-granting, literal-fallen-star mother, travel writer father, and two younger sisters, most of Ivy's life has been spent moving from place to place—until one night, she makes a wish destined to change everything. Sending the family through a series of calamities, to her aunt's house in Whistling Ridge, N.C.—a place that immediately feels like home—Ivy soon finds herself drawn to similarly aged Ravi, who's Indian American, and talkative Simon, their burgeoning friendship bolstered by the mythos surrounding a town legend from the last century. While the novel alternately glides through a vividly painted landscape and stumbles over hazy fantastical ground, Baldwin satisfyingly renders picturesque descriptions of the setting, the awkward painfulness marking the transition from child to teen, and a robust family core. Ages 8–12.
