Shooting Stars Everywhere

by Martina Wildner

Overview

The first anonymous letter arrives on July 23rd, Victor’s 13th birthday. Which is good, because it gives him something to write about in the journal his father gave him as a present. Soon Victor is writing down everything that happens as he tries to solve the mystery of the letters, conquer his fear of jumping off the high diving board at the pool, and figure out what is going on between his divorced parents.
Things change when he meets D, however. A good diver and an assertive detective, she helps Victor to stop writing his life and start living it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307433756
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	12/18/2007
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	460 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-8-Victor Forlands, 13, is spending a boring summer hanging out in the Berlin apartment he shares with his taxi-driver dad and going to the city pool. Local bullies and his own fear of jumping off the high diving platform are making him miserable. His mother, who has left the family to pursue a career, confuses him as she comes and goes in his life. When mysterious, unaddressed, unsigned messages turn up in his and his neighbors' mail and he meets a pretty girl who calls herself Deborah, things start to get interesting, and Victor decides to record his observances in a journal he received for his birthday. The death of his neighbor's red cocker spaniel seems to be connected to words in the first sinister message: "the red animal is dead." When details of Deborah's troubled life come to light, it becomes clear that she is the author of the strange notes. She inspires Victor to stand up to the pool bullies and take the dive, and he arranges for a better living situation for her. The story is engrossing, if somewhat convoluted, and the characters are quirky. Victor's interest in the stars and in numbers, as well as the diary format, provide an appealing structure, but the writing (or translation) is sometimes choppy, and readers will be disappointed that the messages, which appear to be clues and promise a mystery, are nothing more than a plea for attention.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Translated smoothly from German, Wildner presents an intimate two-and-a-half-week slice of Victor's life in Berlin, beginning on his 13th birthday, when he receives a mysterious riddle that triggers a series of dark events in his neighborhood. Told through Victor's realistically scattered thoughts, readers closely follow him as he unpacks the riddles, which focus on star and number patterns. Beyond this writing style's benefit of building suspense, it also provides raw portraits of Victor's neighbors, his separated parents and the tragic female teen character D, who coincidentally appears when the first riddle arrives. Victor's relationship with D forces him to take risks, look outside his familiar and safe community and ultimately, mature as he deals with D's quirky personality and later the discovery of her true identity. Unfortunately, as Victor's character begins to solidify, Wildner rushes to conveniently solve the neighborhood mystery, which jars the plot's natural flow and detracts from the true importance of Victor's self-discovery and his relationship with D. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews