And the Stars Were Burning Brightly

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Less than 10 of those books have made me cry and it’s been a while since my last bookish weep. That was, until I read And The Stars Were Burning Brightly, a beautifully moving exploration of grief from debut YA author Danielle Jawando. Ultimately though, Danielle Jawando manages to make this uplifting and hopeful – a story of loss and love and finding your place in a life now off kilter – where possibilities like the stars, burn brightly. I think it could be very helpful for someone in a tough spot to read and I think it’s a very emotional story. Yet somehow, despite this incredibly heavy subject matter, Jawando still manages to retain messages of hope, redemption and fresh starts. It covers a difficult subject that is so important to understand, the damage that bullying can cause is immense, the suffering horrific.

As well as the dual perspectives, I thought the way in which the novel was written also added a lot. The majority of the characters we encounter in this novel are teenagers, and they talk, act and behave like teenagers and it was such an authent The winners of The Farshore Reading for Pleasure Teacher Awards 2023, highlighting the work schools are doing to encourage a love of reading, have... And I am so glad I did give it a shot. I read it few months before it's publication, but because of technical difficulties I wasn't able to review it before (aka I postponed it because my computer broke).Afterwards, these two police officers had come round to get me to give a statement to explain what happened. ' Routine,' they'd said. ' To establish that Al's death was an accident.'

Mental health issues are not an easy thing to deal with and nor is the loss of a family member. This book was very hard hitting, and I found that it was an excellent book to read. Jawando really emphasises the fact in her book that if you have a lot of emotional thoughts then you should talk to someone - “it’s OK not to be OK”. What really made the purpose of the book clear to me though was how the book was based on Jawando’s own experience, and how the characters in the novel reflected her own life. I also found that this book shows you a first-hand experience of how the victim of bullying feels, and how the people around them cope with the loss. And the Stars Were Burning Brightly is an excellent book, a great addition to modern YA and a powerful read for older teens and adults alike. Nate has lost his brother to suicide- through the grief, anger and self blame he starts to dig into Al’s life in the hope of finding answers. Through this quest he meets Megan, mourning not only loss of life but the loss of chances- together, maybe, they’ll find a way to move on.Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home >

Piss off,' Saul says. 'Your mum asked me to move in, but I ain't sure you wanna new stepdad just yet.' Realism resonates throughout this book, so much so that some scenes are visceral in their authenticity, to the point where you can feel the character's pain. This authenticity draws you even closer to Nathan and Megan as they search for reasons for Al's (Nathan's brother, Megan's friend) suicide.Both Nathan and Megan share guilt around Al but also anger and frustration around their classmates. You really see the cruel side of school students. It took me a while to work up the emotional courage to read this book and it was every bit as devastating as I thought it would be, but it was also incredibly beautiful.