The Stars of Whistling Ridge

by Cindy Baldwin, Reba Buhr (Read by)

Overview

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?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781665097994
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/15/2021
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Cindy Baldwin is the award-winning author of Where the Watermelons Grow, Beginners Welcome, and The Stars of Whistling Ridge. She is a disabled activist, cofounder of Middle Grade at Heart, and We Need Diverse Books mentor. She lives just outside Portland, Oregon, with her husband and daughter. To learn more about Cindy, visit cindybaldwinbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/31/2021

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. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown Ltd. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Delightfully voice-y and atmospheric, The Stars of Whistling Ridge is a gentle and magical story about family and the true meaning of home." — Jasmine Warga, Newbery Honor-winning author of Other Words for Home

“A refreshing breath of familiar magic. The Stars of Whistling Ridge inspires readers to see the extraordinary in everyday life.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“Detailed and evocative.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Baldwin deftly pens a tribute to the places called home and the rigors of growing up.” — Publishers Weekly

“Spot on.” — Horn Book Magazine

From the Publisher

"Delightfully voice-y and atmospheric, The Stars of Whistling Ridge is a gentle and magical story about family and the true meaning of home."

Jasmine Warga

A refreshing breath of familiar magic. The Stars of Whistling Ridge inspires readers to see the extraordinary in everyday life.

Shelf Awareness (starred review)

07/01/2021

Gr 4–7—Twelve-year-old Ivy Mae Bloom is tired of living in an RV, and traveling around the country all the time with her parents and two younger sisters. But her mother is a falling star, who is charged with repairing places in the world where magic is broken, and for that she has to travel. One day Ivy Mae steals nine of her mother's wishing jars, and uses them all to wish for a forever home. The next day, Ivy wakes up with a serious illness that makes it hard for her to breathe. The family quickly drives to her Aunt Agatha's house in Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, a place where Ivy feels an immediate sense of belonging. But there's something seriously wrong in Whistling Ridge, something that's causing the town's famous apples to be filled with smoke. As Ivy learns more about the town and its history, she begins to suspect that the problems are linked to Lydia Lovelace, a woman who supposedly died of a broken heart many years before. With complex, believable characters, and a premise that blends everyday life with an original magical backstory, this novel balances the familiar resentments of adolescence with a high-stakes fantasy plot. It also explores the tensions between multiple characters who care deeply for each other, in spite of having radically different goals. The main characters (Ivy and her family, and her friend Simon) are all described as white (although Ivy's mom and aunts are described as having golden skin and white hair), while one of Ivy's friends, Ravi, is Indian American, and the town librarian is described as having "light brown skin, and shiny straight black hair." Baldwin adeptly develops even the minor characters, like Ravi's father, a pharmacist with an obsession with creating new flavors of ice cream, and one of Simon's two moms, a former chef who makes amazing cupcakes. Since Ivy is an aspiring writer, she often includes embellished language (like frisson and cataclysm) and their definitions into her first-person narrative. VERDICT This well-written, magical story will appeal to fans of Ingrid Law's Savvy, and other novels that blend fantasy with contemporary fiction.—Ashley Larsen, Pacifica Libs., CA

School Library Journal

2021-04-27
Ivy’s impulsive, defiant act has profound consequences for her family and a small town in trouble.

Twelve-year-old Ivy and her two younger sisters live on the road with their father, a travel writer, and mother, one of three sisters—fallen stars—who tend the world’s magic. Along their travels, Mama helps visitors to their Winnebago camper, using the fireflies she’s trapped to grant their wishes. Shy Elena, 10, and annoyingly precocious Sophie, 8, are contented travelers; creative writer Ivy is not. Longing to have privacy, put down roots, and make friends, she steals and releases all her mother’s fireflies, making her own wish for a permanent home. Soon after, Ivy has a severe asthma attack that requires resting somewhere near a hospital, and Mama senses that her sister Agatha needs her. The family heads to Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, where they find Agatha ailing and the town’s apple orchards hit by a mysterious blight. Intrigued by a local legend, Ivy wonders if it’s linked to the deepening crisis. Ivy’s a believably conflicted tween on an emotional roller coaster. While realistic elements—the setting especially, from the family’s cramped RV to the town and countryside—are detailed and evocative, the underdeveloped fantasy element of the story is not. Sophie’s astrophysics factoids only highlight this disconnect. Characters default to White.

A warmhearted family tale wrapped in a lackluster fantasy. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews