Shooting Star Rider

by Nayoung Jin, Geneviève Côté (Illustrations)

One warm summer night, a shower of shooting stars sweeps across the sky. Elinor looks out of her window and makes a "Make grandpa well." Elinor waits and waits for her wish to come true. Then, one morning, she receives a postcard―from a shooting star! Instead of granting her wish, however, the star tells her not to wait for miracles from shooting stars anymore. Outraged, Elinor sets out to change the shooting stars’ minds, embarking on an adventure that leads her to the far reaches of outer space. Can she convince the stars that granting wishes is their most important job of all?

This imaginative picture book from debut author Nayoung Jin reminds us just how important hopes and dreams can be.

Genres: Picture Books

36 pages, Hardcover

Published September 26, 2017

Reviews

[Baby Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!

Hello, friends! Our book today is Shooting Star Rider, written by Nayoung Jin and illustrated by Geneviève Côté, the story of a little girl’s quest to convince the stars of the importance of dreams.

One summer evening, a little girl named Elinor sees a shooting star, and makes a wish: “Make grandpa well.” But the next night, she receives a most confusing postcard FROM a shooting star in reply. It rudely dismisses her dreams, and tell her not to rely on shooting stars to solve her problems anymore. Irked, Elinor blasts off into space, tracking down the star who rebuffed her so rudely, scolding it for being so dismissive of the importance of dreaming and hope. The star is fed up, though: shooting stars are very busy, and do not have time help everybody. Can’t people just help themselves? Elinor disagrees, and takes the star to earth so it can have a firsthand lesson in the importance of hoping.

I had mixed feelings on this one, the story is fine, but unevenly paced – some sequences seem to fly by too fast, others drag a bit. Still, there’s a lot of charm to be found in Elinor stubbornly defending the right to hope and wish, also encouraging empathy as she does. The art is also a bit mixed-bag: many of the illustrations are simply gorgeous, creating the dual worlds of Elinor’s hometown and the spacescape filled with celestial bodies and craft, but some of the lines in them seemed harsh and almost pixelated – as though their resolution was not high enough. Overall, the length was fine, JJ enjoyed it, and for any faults it may have, it’s still a sweet book with a lovely message. Baby Bookworm approved!

(Note: A copy of this book was provided to The Baby Bookworm by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

Be sure to check out The Baby Bookworm for more reviews!

[Seema Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an atmospheric tale about hope and exploration with a wonderful female protagonist.