Stella by the Sea

Aussie Chomps

by Ruth Starke

Stella wants to be ordinary, but that seems impossible when her parents, her home and even her dreams are extraordinary. Then a little ad in the newspaper changes her life.

Genres: Childrens

96 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Ruth Starke lives in Adelaide, South Australia, and has published more than 20 novels for young people including the award-winning NIPS XI, which was named Honour Book (Younger Readers) in the 2001 CBC Awards and is currently on the Fiction for Young Readers curriculum, Noodle Pie and the Captain Congo series of graphic novels.

She was awarded the Carclew Fellowship in 2002, and currently serves as a judge for both the Colin Thiele Writing Fellowship and the Independent Arts Fellowship. She is a regular and longtime book reviewer for Australian Book Review, Viewpoint, and Radio Adelaide, an an editorial adviser for ABR, and a past Chair of the SA Writers Centre.

Before becoming an author, Ruth worked in public relations and travel marketing, and at a great variety of other jobs - of which the most interesting, she says, were selling French perfume in Harrods, cooking on the radio, taking tourists to Kashmir, and interviewing Grand Prix drivers.

She turned to fiction writing in 1992, and since then has become one of Australia's best-loved authors for children and young adults.

For more information visit: http://www.ruthstarke.com/

Reviews

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is alright book for young children to enjoy but it didn’t really have an interesting storyline. The main character was good but she kept on complaining that she didn’t have a normal house with a big backyard and that she had to keep on moving houses from one really fancy place to another which made her apparently want to have her own cubby house. (Don’t really understand where a cubby house had to come from) but this is still a solid children’s book.

[vio · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute, short story tweens would enjoy.

[Kiarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book as a teeny little kid! Omg I wish I knew where it was. I’d love to reread it for nostalgia’s sake.

[Carissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is part of a series put out by running press kids where they features three levels of reading–nibbles, bites and chomps. each book then has a “nibble” a “bite” or a “chomp” literally taken from the top corner–neat gimmick. ’stella’ is a chomp-level book. basic plot–girl finds a playhouse for sale and asks to rent it, then spends time decorating it and living there in her free time, enjoying her independence. i have to say that while i found the main character to be unrealistically wealthy (her mom is a real estate maven and her dad has a backyard makeover tv show) and therefore a little whiny, overall, i think that as a child, i would have been very attracted to the concept of this book. i always wanted a little place of my own to decorate. i was lucky enough to have a dad who built me and my sister a little, two story playhouse, but i somehow never really got around to decorating it–just dreaming about decorating it and then playing in it with my friends. other than a misuse of the word “homely” (should have been “homey”), it seemed to be pretty well-written.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

A charming story, that was a pleasure to read and one that most young girls will identify with.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading this at primary school!

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the books that I loved as a child. And I liked theses type of stories. I really enjoyed it. So I give it 4 stars!

[Adlina Baharudin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book since I was a kid.

[Tilly. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Im with hannah i read it in primary school to!