Starworld

by Audrey Coulthurst, Paula Garner

Overview

In a novel in two voices, a popular teen and an artistic loner forge an unlikely bond — and create an entire universe — via texts. But how long before the real world invades Starworld?

Sam Jones and Zoe Miller have one thing in common: they both want an escape from reality. Loner Sam flies under the radar at school and walks on eggshells at home to manage her mom’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, wondering how she can ever leave to pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Popular, people-pleasing Zoe puts up walls so no one can see her true self: the girl who was abandoned as an infant, whose adoptive mother has cancer, and whose disabled brother is being sent away to live in a facility. When an unexpected encounter results in the girls’ exchanging phone numbers, they forge a connection through text messages that expands into a private universe they call Starworld. In Starworld, they find hilarious adventures, kindness and understanding, and the magic of being seen for who they really are. But when Sam’s feelings for Zoe turn into something more, will the universe they’ve built survive the inevitable explosion?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763697563
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/16/2019
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	840L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Audrey Coulthurst is the author of the YA fantasy novels Of Fire and Stars and Inkmistress. She lives in Santa Monica, California.

Paula Garner is the author of the YA novels Phantom Limbs and Relative Strangers. She lives in the Chicago area.

Editorial Reviews

An unlikely friendship blossoms between two high school seniors...in the deft hands of co-authors Coulthurst (Inkmistress, 2018, etc.) and Garner (Relative Strangers, 2018, etc.), the well-realized main characters and deeply insightful descriptions of complex emotions combine into an unusually thoughtful novel...Readers seeking characters facing challenges with honesty, bravery, and kindness will appreciate this book with its reminder that our outward lives often don't reflect who we really are.
—Kirkus Reviews

Sensitively attentive to the walls teens erect between their family life and their school personae, as well as to the misunderstandings that emerge when people have different approaches to and understandings of emotional expression, this portrayal of two very different girls finding common ground will resonate with people of various identities, cliques, and fandoms.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The story offers plenty of growth for both as the girls come to a new understanding of the challenges in their lives, and a realistic open ending without a neat tie-up adds greatly...a well-wrought story about the pitfalls and rewards of friendship. ­
—School Library Journal

Audrey Coulthurst (Of Fire and Stars) and Paula Garner (Phantom Limbs) tactfully navigate the girls' relationship and Sam's attraction to Zoe as her "Be a robot. Feel nothing" mantra inevitably fails. Told in alternating chapters from each girl's perspective, Starworld extols the value of friendship and shows how self-acceptance can come from being oneself with others.
—Shelf Awareness for Readers

If you value the power of online relationships, be it through fandom or ones that helped you to keep you connected to old friends, add Starworld to your to-read list.
—Hypable (blog)

A warm, funny, and heartfelt escape from reality.
—Teen Librarian Toolbox (blog)

From the Publisher

04/01/2019

Gr 9 Up—Zoe is a pretty, popular star of the high school stage; Sam is an artistic loner with only one friend to her name. Their paths would never have crossed except for a mistaken text message that opens the door to an unexpected friendship based in Starworld: a fantasy location they create, complete with adventures that take the teens out of the hidden pain of their daily lives. Zoe is surprised and grateful when Sam helps her see that it isn't necessary to be "perfect." Sam, on the other hand, isn't quite sure what to do when she falls in love with Zoe. Since Zoe is straight, readers know all along that this will lead to a painful outcome, and the tension grows along with the girls' friendship. Sam is funny, snarky, and potty-mouthed, and her character seems the better defined of the two. Even so, the story offers plenty of growth for both as the girls come to a new understanding of the challenges in their lives, and a realistic open ending without a neat tie-up adds greatly. Only their adventures in Starworld seem flat, but that's a small price to pay for a well-wrought story about the pitfalls and rewards of friendship. VERDICT Purchase for libraries that serve older teens.—Elizabeth Friend, Wester Middle School, TX

School Library Journal

2019-01-08

An unlikely friendship blossoms between two high school seniors, each of whom has family secrets but who together find unexpected solace in a fantasy world they create through texting.

Sam Jones keeps to herself, focusing on studying, painting, and gaming with her one friend. She wants to leave Portland, Oregon, to study aerospace engineering but is worried about how her divorced mother will survive without her. Zoe Miller is popular and has a serious boyfriend, a raft of friends, deep involvement in school theater—and a severely disabled brother. A chance encounter between the girls sparks an initially goofy text exchange that quickly turns into a lifeline for both. While this plot might not sound extraordinary, in the deft hands of co-authors Coulthurst (Inkmistress, 2018, etc.) and Garner (Relative Strangers, 2018, etc.), the well-realized main characters and deeply insightful descriptions of complex emotions combine into an unusually thoughtful novel. All characters appear to be white. Secondary characters, such as parents and friends, are less three-dimensional than Sam and Zoe. The fantasy texting subplot is clever: Seamlessly woven in as dialogue, it is not gimmicky. Alternating chapters in each girl's first-person voice reveal their perspectives.

Readers seeking characters facing challenges with honesty, bravery, and kindness will appreciate this book with its reminder that our outward lives often don't reflect who we really are. (resources) (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews