Double Feature: The Forest of Stars / The Bone Garden
Always on the hunt for your child’s next best read?
If you have a middle grade child or fluent reader in Elementary, let me recommend these amazing books to you. They are simply magical and truly imaginative!
The Forest of Stars
Left all alone after her mother passes away, twelve-year-old Louisa LaRoche watches the sky for her father. Long ago, a powerful gust of wind swept through town, stealing him away on the wings of his untamed magic--the same magic that stirs within Louisa. As if she is made of hollow bones and too much air, her feet never quite touch the ground.
But for all her sky gazing, Louisa finds her fortune on the leaf-strewn street when she spots a gleaming black-and-gold invitation--a ticket to the Carnival Beneath the Stars. If her father fits in nowhere else, maybe she'll find him there, dazzling crowds alongside the other strange and wonderful feats. Only, soon after she arrives, a tightrope act ends disastrously--and suspiciously. As fate tugs Louisa closer to the stars, she must decide if she's willing to slip into the injured performer's role, despite the darkness plucking at the carnival's magical threads.
Title: The Forest of Stars
Genre: Children’s Middle Grade / Fantasy
Author: Heather Kassner
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 08/04/2020
Publishing House: Henry Holt and Co.
ISBN: 1250297001
ISBN13: 9781250297006
My Thoughts
There’s a dark, fairytale-like quality to this novel that I remember experiencing in my own childhood readings when books were less contemporary and more folksy. The Forest of Stars is alluring and wondrously irresistible with its moody aura, dark elements, and mysterious magic.
Louisa, the main character, is first introduced to the reader while mending fabrics by her mother’s bedside. Her mother is terribly ill and about to leave this world. Louisa is a diligent, hardworking girl through all hours of the day and when her mother passes on, she is left with a few coins and her mother’s memories of her father, who Louisa never met.
Louisa wants to find out if she can find her father and sets out on a journey. Drifted out through the window and up and away, is all that she was told her father went, into the dark skies on a stormy gust.
Her feet never quite touching the ground, she is aware that she is different somehow and tries to hide behind objects and people. During a market, she finds a golden ticket to the Carnival Beneath the Stars where she is told her misfortunes and makes friends with some of the carnival crew. When she is invited to partake, things don’t go as planned and darkness surrounds the performance.
Not all her new friends stay unscathed and it quickly becomes clear that there are trying forces at work and the crew is tethered within its limitations. But who is orchestrating this dark magic?
Will Louisa make it through and find her father after all?
*
This is such a whimsical and imaginative book with goth undertones. I liked the whole broody darkness surrounding the carnival and all over mood. I was pretty much captivated immediately by Kassner’s writing, it is simply brilliant. Seriously, one of the best middle-grade books I have read in a long time along with The Bone Garden, Kassner’s previous novel.
I have read several children’s novels over the years in part because of volunteer work and my love for reading to children and this is truly one of those special books, I think, that stands out at the moment. Not because there haven’t been books similar to this, but I do register a trend in novels as different genres gain momentum till the next wave of the same come along. The Forest of Stars has a rooted fairytale-like quality to it that has reemerged among books of adventure, mythology, or children’s mysteries, and is wonderfully peculiar for the senses. Perfect to instill a curiosity for the fantastical and open the world back to imagination.
The artwork in this novel is beautiful, though black and white. I can only imagine what it would look like in color! If you have a chance, check out the artist Kaja Kajfež , because her art is amazing.
As you can tell, I can definitely recommend this one. I will be sure to read all and any of Kassner’s books as they publish.
Enjoy!
I won a physical copy of this arc at a giveaway hosted by the author.
All opinions are my own.
The Bone Garden
“Remember, my dear, you do not really and truly exist.”
Irréelle fears she’s not quite real. Only the finest magical thread tethers her to life—and to Miss Vesper. But for all her efforts to please her cruel creator, the thread is unraveling. Irréelle is forgetful as she gathers bone dust. She is slow returning from the dark passages beneath the cemetery. Worst of all, she is unmindful of her crooked bones.
When Irréelle makes one final, unforgivable mistake by destroying a frightful creature just brought to life, Miss Vesper threatens to imagine her away once and for all. Defying her creator for the very first time, Irréelle flees to the underside of the graveyard and embarks on an adventure to unearth the mysterious magic that breathes bones to life, even if it means she will return to dust and be no more.
Debut author Heather Kassner's The Bone Garden is a gorgeously written story--illustrated by Matt Saunders--humming with magic, mystery, and dark imaginings. Perfect for fans of Holly Black, Jonathan Auxier, and Katherine Arden.
Title: The Bone Garden
Genre: Children’s Middle Grade / Fantasy / Horror
Author: Heather Kassner
Format: Audiobook
Duration: 5 hours and 34 minutes
Publication Date: 11/05/2019
Publishing House: MacMillan Audio
ISBN: 1250211867
ISBN13: 9781250211866
My Thoughts
Loved it! 💕
Absolutely fantastic! I read this one on audio because I was so smitten with Kassner’s new novel The Forest of Stars that I wanted to start it right away and the audiobook was available to me through my online library.
First off, the narration is amazing and done by Fiona Hardingham, whom I immediately recognized from other audiobooks by Kiersten White, Sabaa Tahir, Meagan Spooner, Maggie Stiefvater, and Christina McDonald, just to name a few. This novel drew me in within seconds with it’s sharp and expressive writing. There is a clear aura of something haunted in the lines of this book, something horribly hidden among the bones as it is read.
Irréelle spends most of her days in catacombs and dirt…digging for bones! She is a bone digger for dust that she collects in vials just so for the taunting Ms. Vesper. There’s an order to how the bones are extracted, a magical cocktail needed to create life in the image Ms. Vesper seeks.
In the frightful chamber of her master, Irréelle witnesses the inception of life into the dust she collects to create a hand and the ever clumsy student in her master's eyes makes a grave mistake.
Together with another, a boy she must defend, Irréelle is forced underground to hold off the sinister ongoings her master has planned and she becomes as brave as can be to not only stop the evil doings within but also understand her own coming to be.
A magically haunted middle-grade novel that grips the reader from the start!
*
I was truly captivated by the horror vibes in this novel, super spooky, and folksy at the same time. This novel is sure to ignite an interest in the most reluctant of readers and definitely will be a joy for those already loving books.
There is a sense of macabre and question of identity explored in The Bone Garden, and Kassner does an amazing job with her lyrical writing and style. I can’t recommend it enough.
The characters are easily identifiable with and Ms. Vesper is the perfect stigma of the evil aunt, or neighbor lady or lunch lady that simply does not care for little kids and makes it her mission to give them grief for every day they are around. She is one to fear, for sure!
The idea of the catacombs and digging in graves to extract bone dust is one I absolutely loved as a setting and am sure will captivate kids as well. There are things to explore and run from around every corner and the magical elements make the entire setting spooky and frightful in the best of ways.
Definitely a must-read! You can thank me later and let me know how your kids loved it!
You’re welcome :)
Happy Reading!
*Samples taken from the publisher’s website
As you can see, there is much I loved about these novels, truly. It is always a pleasure to find treasures like this. I will be sure to gift these novels the next time a kids birthday comes along.
If you end up reading these with your kids, do let me know. I am so curious what they thought!