Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars

by Catherine Norton

Navigation skills have many uses, but can they help Hester find her place in the universe?

Fans of The Fortune Maker will be sure to love Catherine Norton's enchanting new middle-grade historical fiction book.


It's 1866, and Hester Hitchins' father is missing at sea.

Determined to find him, eleven-year-old Hester wins a place at Addington's Nautical Navigation Academy, where she will learn to navigate by the stars. But the academy is just for boys, and what's more, no one seems to be in charge.

Bumbling schoolmaster Captain Slingsby doesn't know anything about navigation. Lord Addington is obsessed with building the world's biggest telescope and Lady Addington believes that falling stars are the souls of the dead.

With the help of a lodestone, her new friends Pru and Nelson, and a dazzling meteor storm, can Hester set things right - and find her own place in the universe?

Genres: Middle Grade

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2024

About the author

I grew up in more than one place – England first, and then a couple of cities in Australia. In Adelaide, where I live now, I went to an unconventional high school, where we called the teachers by their first names, toured plays we wrote ourselves, and went on three school camps every year. Then, for my final year, I went to the kind of girls’ college where prefects tell you off for not wearing your blazer or having socks the wrong length. It was like going to another country, and so it’s probably no surprise that my stories are often about people finding out how the world looks to someone else, or if they stand in another place.

I’ve wanted to write since I was very young (although back then, in the 1980s, I probably said I wanted to be an ‘authoress’). My room was always littered with bits of paper and there were usually half a dozen half-read books lying in and around my bed. I am still a person of many bookmarks.

By the time I grew up, I’d got it into my head that writing wasn’t something you could easily do as an Actual Job, so I spent quite a number of years trying my hand at other things, and travelling around the world. What I didn’t know was that, apart from reading all those books, trying new things and seeing new places and meeting all sorts of people – basically, gathering ideas for characters and stories – is the best writer training around.

It gets tiring, though, so after a decade or so I stayed still long enough to get married, have a son, and go to university, where I learnt all sorts of other useful, fascinating and necessary things about reading and writing.

I’ve also learnt that the path to where you’re going can often be circuitous.

And this: the more words you know, the easier it is to say what you mean. A dictionary can be handy.

Reviews

[Kim Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overcoming gender discrimination, Hester achieves top marks in a test for entry into a navigation school and earns herself a scholarship - the only trouble is the school only takes boys. This book is about women realising their worth, their skills, and their intelligence and pursuing their dreams regardless of their sex.
Highly recommend for ages 8-9+

[Emily Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great read! I read this and then passed it on to miss 10 who absolutely devoured this book and mister 9 is currently reading.
Highly recommend for 9+ year olds.
Hester’s story was beautifully written, the kids enjoyed reading about her journey,friendships; the storyline in general. The book itself is beautifully made with a hard cover and engaging cover art and one of Miss 10’s top reads for 2024.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks for the opportunity to read this wonderful story Catherine Norton and Harper Collins

[whatbooknext · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hester doesn't much like living with her uncle. But her and her siblings have no choice in the matter after their father is missing at sea, presumed drowned and their mum lost while giving birth to their baby brother and sister.

Their uncle is a businessman and puts them all to work immediately. The oldest brother is at work in the rope business, Hester's older sister looks after the babies, and Hester herself makes whips with knots in them called a Cat of Nine Tails. She hates making them and wishes she was back at school which she loved.

Hester is very clever, in particular with maths and science and she misses her lessons. When she sees an opportunity to escape her terrible daily task she sits an exam to attend a Navigation and Astronomy School. Being the 1800's, this is no easy task being a girl. She fools the examiners and sits the test.

Learning about Navigation is part of her three part plan to find her missing father. Wishing with all her heart that he is still alive somewhere out there, she wants more than anything to go and look for him. Her father once told her he needed a compass, navigation skills and a telescope out on the ocean and also to find his way home each time.

Although some parts of her plan come together, others do not, and instead of being a student she ends up a scullery maid far from home. Feeling further and further away from her goal, she does make unlikely friends. Her dimming determination soon rises back up again, not only to help herself but others who have their own dreams.


Set in the 19th Century when girls are meant to be maids or married off, main character Hester is feisty and steadfast at changing her and her sibling's fate. Although not the oldest in the family, she is definitely the most clever particularly with maths and science. This knowledge and her plucky, dogged nature drives this story.

I have enjoyed many historical tales of girls going into house service and living within the strict dynamics of wealthy households, but this story surprised me. It's set in a time of much change where woman were beginning to break away from the rules of 'polite society' to achieve their dreams, and ideas of science and engineering were being pursued with greater intensity.

The household Hester finds herself in is in upheaval before she even arrives due to an accident, a teacher with secrets and a lord working on a huge project that will affect the entire world.

All this makes for a great read, perfectly plotted to keep readers glued to the page.

Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars is based around pioneering women in Science in the 19th Century and interesting aspects of their lives.

Age - 8+

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars is a chapter book for kids by Catherine Norton. The story begins in 1866, with Hester, and her desire to find out the truth of what happened to her father, who is believed to be dead. After his disappearance, she was sent to live with an uncle, who has her working, rather than attending school. She wants to learn how to navigate, because she believes it will help her find him. However, when an opportunity to learn navigation comes up, she’s disappointed to find that it is only for boys, and they will not accept a girl into their program. Disguising herself as a boy, she decides to take the test anyway, finds herself accepted as the top of the group. But will her uncle let her go? And what will she find at the school?

My first thought is that it’s a kind of a generic book. It falls into a lot of standard tropes, such as the girl not allowed to do something because of misogyny and then ends up being better than all of the boys trope. And it has a pretty standard base to it, where she is sent to live with an uncle after something happens to her family and she just wants to go and find that family, or find out what happened. I think my main issue with a lot of the book is that it doesn’t feel like it has much of a real goal to it. And every goal Hester does have left me feeling like it didn’t have much importance to it. For example, with the disappearance of the father. Her goal left me feeling like it was kind of a waste of time, because of how it ended up. And the same with the learning navigation skills. There was a desperation to learn, but the stuff with the school made it feel completely unimportant.

And another issue is that the author skims through a lot of things. Such as skipping through the school lessons, while giving very little indication of what’s going on. I know the author is trying to imply that the teacher doesn't know what he's talking about. But it skips through these bits in such a hurry. It felt like a lot of the book is very rushed and that there’s not much time spent building and developing characters. Plus, with a lot of character that are in the book, I’m left feeling like there needed to be more story to a lot of them. Like with Hester’s friend, Nelson. I would have liked for them to build up more of a friendship; as is, it felt like there was no real friendship between them. As if they were just hanging out for the sake of being around someone else.

Overall… It was okay… But it felt very generic in many points. The characters were kind of stereotyped, and nothing much that I felt was enjoyable about any of them. By the end of the book, I feel like it was very forgettable. I’m sure plenty of kids would enjoy it, though.

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1866 in Victorian England, Norton throws a spotlight on the struggles of women and girls to carve a future for themselves as well as digging into the class divide as Hester and her siblings are orphaned and set to work by their Uncle Henry as they have had 'enough' schooling. Hester is highly intelligent and a capable mathematician and is determined to achieve bigger things, including learning to navigate by the stars, so she can find her father, who is missing at seaband presumed dead.

Disguised as a boy, Hester sits the entrance exam for Addington’s Nautical Navigation Academy and not only passes but achieves the highest score and wins a scholarship. Her uncle refuses to let her go bu her clever sister Joyce, conspires to send her there 'as a maid'. But Hester is unable to convince the Academy to accept a girl and she does end up working as a maid. Befriended by Mildred and shown the ropes of being a servant, Hester engages with a range of interesting characters but continues to struggle for recognition, is eventually accepted into the school but is then faced with the scorn of the male students and the dreadful tutelage of the bumbling, drunken schoolmaster, Captain Slingsby. With many complications and artful interference by Hester and her friends Pru and Nelson, a number of lives are sorted out and issues resolved.

Hester is a strong-willed and determined 1 year old who is slow to see and appreciate the issues of others as she is so focused on her own plight. However, she gradually becomes less self=centered as she starts to help others. As well as an interesting glimpse into the period, there is a strong focus on astronomy. Norton was inspired by the work of Janet Taylor - an author and instrument maker, the story is set during a time of extraordinary discoveries about the universe. There a number of moral issues woven throughout including blackmail, family grief, class, and racism though the overarching theme is the struggle for equal opportunities for girls.

The audio performance was engaging and vibrant - an entertaining story for upper primary and middle school readers.

[Jessica Mather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a really sweet little middle-grade, which had themes of freindship, determination, and the reality of being a girl in Victorian England.
Hestor has been told that her Father has died in the royal navy. But she doesn't believe this and instead believes he is lost. She embarks on an adventure to collect items that will help her at sea and in her search for her father.
The reality of being a certain gernder is very apparent in this. Instead of training to go to sea, like she should, she is given the position of a maid at the training facility. Meanwhile, a male student that has been accepted admits that he doesn't want to train, but instead wants to be a mechanic. The gender divide is written very well.

I gave this 4 stars