Hello, Star

by Carolyn Haywood

Spending the summer in the country with her grandparents, five-year-old Star has a chance to make friends with raccoons, swans and other animals both domestic and wild

Genres: Childrens, Chapter Books

50 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Carolyn Haywood was an American writer and illustrator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She wrote 47 children's books, most notably the series under the "Eddie" and "Betsy" titles.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about Star, Betsy's ("B" Is for Betsy) little sister, and the summer she spends on her grandparents' farm. She is five years old and I think that is probably a good target audience for this, maybe up to six or seven. It's very short, each "chapter" taking maybe at most five minutes to read. I don't feel we get much insight into Star's personality, or that of Jimmy, her seven-year-old cousin. It's mostly just little episodes of their interactions with various animals. Watching the antics of a family of raccoons, waiting for baby cygnets to hatch, playing with a new lamb. It's a gentle read--about the most dramatic thing is when the raccoons get into the kitchen and spill a sack of flour all over the floor. There's also a bit of "danger" from the nesting swans -- Star is not allowed to go close to them because they are so protective. When an egg rolls out of the nest, she wants her grandpa to put it back -- but he says he won't go near the swan's nest because he doesn't want to get bit. Star is surprised to learn that grown-ups can be scared, too. Anyway, they take the egg to a farm with some Canada geese nesting and let it incubate there, then catch it and bring it back to it's swan family after it hatches. There's also a part where the aunt puts out raisins for the raccoon family to eat and one gets so close Star can feed it by hand. So, yeah, perhaps not the best example for modern readers in terms of animal interactions there -- though later the aunt does make a point of saying that Star shouldn't touch wild animals and that they would not make good pets. Anyway, a lukewarm three stars from me, but it made a good filler while we're waiting for our holds to come in at the library.