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The Life History of a Star
For more than a year, fourteen-year-old Kristin uses her diary to record her confused thoughts about the physical changes brought on by adolescence and the emotional strain on her family of living with the "ghost" of her beloved older brother who was physically and mentally destroyed while serving in Vietnam.Kristin uses her diary to record her confused thoughts about the changes brought on by adolescence and the emotional strain of living with the "ghost" of her older brother who was physically and mentally destroyed while serving in Vietnam.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 9, 2014
The Life History of a Star is written in diary form. It's the diary of Kristen who is 14 at the beginning of the story. The "ghost" of her brother lives in the attic. He was injured in the Vietnam War.
Most of the book is about day to day life and while some of it was interesting I thought there would be more mention of the brother in the attic. It was a cute book, but not what I was expecting.
Most of the book is about day to day life and while some of it was interesting I thought there would be more mention of the brother in the attic. It was a cute book, but not what I was expecting.
October 6, 2009
Plain story, besides that lame "ghost" for disfigured brother word play. Growing pains + Alcoholic/worthless parents + sex/drug curious friends + diary = we get it.
June 1, 2009
The genre of The Life History of a Star by Kelly Easton is fiction. I read the back of this novel and I could tell by the back alone that I have a lot in common with the main character Kristen Folger. This contributed to me choosing to read The Life History of a Star. When I was Kristins age my mom tried to make me dress girly, which Kristin experienced too. I had a lot of changes in my life similar to hers, her brother David had been in the Vietnam war. My cousin A.J., who is like my brother, went to Iraq when I was 14, and is still currently a marine.
The protagonist is Kristin Folger, a 14 year old girl who lived in Glendora, California. The antagonist is her mother; Kristin is a disappointment to mother and her mother and her don’t talk enough. Kristin’s mother is the reason why her parents divorced, her father wants to move back in and still loves her mother but her mother is an unreasonable alcoholic. When they where together they would fight a lot and it made Kristin stressed. Kristin’s best friends are Carol and Simon. Carol gets a boyfriend named Freddie, and Carol made out with him in front of Kristin, grossing her out. She gets mad at them because she misses the old days because she grew up being friends with Carol. Simon has always been just a friend to Kristin until recently he has feeling for her and tries to make moves on her, saying that he loves her.
One conflict in Kristin’s life is man vs. mother. Kristin’s mother made really gross food, but Kristin new that if she complained her mother would get angry. Her mother causes Kristin, and her brother Bobby, grief because she divorces their dad. Her mom is an alcoholic, and Kristin can’t be open with her because she will get slapped. The majority of the time her mom makes smart mean remarks at Kristin. Kristin suggested her mother go to an AA meeting instead of family therapy and would have been slapped if she didn’t run out the door. Her mother’s alcohol problem affects her. Her mother insisted on family therapy and Kristin ended up running home from it because it was traumatizing. After that her mom didn’t make her brother or her go but her mom made her dad go.
Another conflict is man vs. self. One of her teachers asked her why she got straight A’s one semester and straight D’s the next, she told him it all depended on her state of mind. Kristin wanted to kill herself until her friend Simon convinced her that only people with no imagination kill themselves. She feels numb and doesn’t feel any emotions most of the time. She hates that her body is changing.
A big conflict for Kristin is man vs. friend. It is not that she is fighting with her friends; her friends just suddenly change so that she has nothing in common with them anymore. Kristin tries to explain to Carol that there is “’More to life than what our parents have, you know? We can do different things than they’ve done’”(Easton 79). Yet all Carol thinks about is her boyfriend and she doesn’t look at the big picture of what Kristin means, she doesn’t understand. Kristin notices her friend Simon’s friendship with her is changing. She thought that Simon didn’t like her anymore, as a friend, but he tells her he really likes her. She tells Simon to please not stop being her friend. He goes on to make moves on her and tells her he has feelings for her. This causes him to be distant from Kristin since she doesn’t want to be more than friends because she doesn’t want to lose her friendship with him.
The theme of The Life History of a Star is the journey from innocence to awareness. The “ghost” in her attic is her brother David who was seriously injured in the Vietnam war. She did not want David to die and just wanted David to come back in the beginning, she desired this more than anything else. She came to realizing that David could never come back. She calls him “the ghost” because he is not who he used to be, her brother is not her brother anymore, but a lost soul. She called him the ghost because of him howling in the attic haunted her with the remembrance of her brother. She was holding on to who her brother was, hoping he would go back to normal. She finally became aware of the fact that he would never come back. She wanted her brother back but she realized it would never happen. She felt so guilty because she wanted him to die so he would be not be miserable anymore. He would moan things but no one could understand what he was trying to say.
Nature and universe symbolize Kristin seeing positivity and confidence in everything. “The sound of the universe is a hum. I hear it when I’m in nature. David said the sound is ohm. The sound of ohm is an affirmation”(125). She really connects with nature and has a passion for astronomy. In Kristins eyes David, her brother who went to war in Vietnam, was a star in every way before he was drafted. David was a star to her. She thought he was perfect he was a wrestling star, track star and a star scholar. Her passion for stars was based on David. Everything she did was in David’s memory. “The atoms that make up the earth are formed inside of stars. In that sense, you could say that all life begins with a star”(105). When she thinks about her brother she worries and has many thoughts of death. She seeks religion to find answers for life after death. “The atoms that make up earth are formed inside of stars. Nothing really dies. Everything is transformed”(159). She wants to be an astronomer and stars symbolize hope too.
The writing style Kelly Easton uses is deep, artistic and the author uses many similes and metaphors. “A comet’s tail is the closest thing to nothing that anything can be. I love that. The closest thing to nothing”(78). Kristin’s descriptions of outer space always are written so beautiful and they make you think because they are so deep. She also uses metaphors and similes in a way that is so artistic and deep it makes you think about life. “Just our bodies, like birds, soaring through those galaxies”(200).
I would give The Life History of a Star 5 out of 5 stars. Honestly it would be more than 5 stars. I recommend this book to everyone, it is one of my favorites. When I couldn’t read this book I would still think about it, all the deep things it says, made me realize so much. It is so interesting all you want to do is read it, even when I was hanging out with friends ever since I started to read it, I would have this urge to keep reading.
The protagonist is Kristin Folger, a 14 year old girl who lived in Glendora, California. The antagonist is her mother; Kristin is a disappointment to mother and her mother and her don’t talk enough. Kristin’s mother is the reason why her parents divorced, her father wants to move back in and still loves her mother but her mother is an unreasonable alcoholic. When they where together they would fight a lot and it made Kristin stressed. Kristin’s best friends are Carol and Simon. Carol gets a boyfriend named Freddie, and Carol made out with him in front of Kristin, grossing her out. She gets mad at them because she misses the old days because she grew up being friends with Carol. Simon has always been just a friend to Kristin until recently he has feeling for her and tries to make moves on her, saying that he loves her.
One conflict in Kristin’s life is man vs. mother. Kristin’s mother made really gross food, but Kristin new that if she complained her mother would get angry. Her mother causes Kristin, and her brother Bobby, grief because she divorces their dad. Her mom is an alcoholic, and Kristin can’t be open with her because she will get slapped. The majority of the time her mom makes smart mean remarks at Kristin. Kristin suggested her mother go to an AA meeting instead of family therapy and would have been slapped if she didn’t run out the door. Her mother’s alcohol problem affects her. Her mother insisted on family therapy and Kristin ended up running home from it because it was traumatizing. After that her mom didn’t make her brother or her go but her mom made her dad go.
Another conflict is man vs. self. One of her teachers asked her why she got straight A’s one semester and straight D’s the next, she told him it all depended on her state of mind. Kristin wanted to kill herself until her friend Simon convinced her that only people with no imagination kill themselves. She feels numb and doesn’t feel any emotions most of the time. She hates that her body is changing.
A big conflict for Kristin is man vs. friend. It is not that she is fighting with her friends; her friends just suddenly change so that she has nothing in common with them anymore. Kristin tries to explain to Carol that there is “’More to life than what our parents have, you know? We can do different things than they’ve done’”(Easton 79). Yet all Carol thinks about is her boyfriend and she doesn’t look at the big picture of what Kristin means, she doesn’t understand. Kristin notices her friend Simon’s friendship with her is changing. She thought that Simon didn’t like her anymore, as a friend, but he tells her he really likes her. She tells Simon to please not stop being her friend. He goes on to make moves on her and tells her he has feelings for her. This causes him to be distant from Kristin since she doesn’t want to be more than friends because she doesn’t want to lose her friendship with him.
The theme of The Life History of a Star is the journey from innocence to awareness. The “ghost” in her attic is her brother David who was seriously injured in the Vietnam war. She did not want David to die and just wanted David to come back in the beginning, she desired this more than anything else. She came to realizing that David could never come back. She calls him “the ghost” because he is not who he used to be, her brother is not her brother anymore, but a lost soul. She called him the ghost because of him howling in the attic haunted her with the remembrance of her brother. She was holding on to who her brother was, hoping he would go back to normal. She finally became aware of the fact that he would never come back. She wanted her brother back but she realized it would never happen. She felt so guilty because she wanted him to die so he would be not be miserable anymore. He would moan things but no one could understand what he was trying to say.
Nature and universe symbolize Kristin seeing positivity and confidence in everything. “The sound of the universe is a hum. I hear it when I’m in nature. David said the sound is ohm. The sound of ohm is an affirmation”(125). She really connects with nature and has a passion for astronomy. In Kristins eyes David, her brother who went to war in Vietnam, was a star in every way before he was drafted. David was a star to her. She thought he was perfect he was a wrestling star, track star and a star scholar. Her passion for stars was based on David. Everything she did was in David’s memory. “The atoms that make up the earth are formed inside of stars. In that sense, you could say that all life begins with a star”(105). When she thinks about her brother she worries and has many thoughts of death. She seeks religion to find answers for life after death. “The atoms that make up earth are formed inside of stars. Nothing really dies. Everything is transformed”(159). She wants to be an astronomer and stars symbolize hope too.
The writing style Kelly Easton uses is deep, artistic and the author uses many similes and metaphors. “A comet’s tail is the closest thing to nothing that anything can be. I love that. The closest thing to nothing”(78). Kristin’s descriptions of outer space always are written so beautiful and they make you think because they are so deep. She also uses metaphors and similes in a way that is so artistic and deep it makes you think about life. “Just our bodies, like birds, soaring through those galaxies”(200).
I would give The Life History of a Star 5 out of 5 stars. Honestly it would be more than 5 stars. I recommend this book to everyone, it is one of my favorites. When I couldn’t read this book I would still think about it, all the deep things it says, made me realize so much. It is so interesting all you want to do is read it, even when I was hanging out with friends ever since I started to read it, I would have this urge to keep reading.
September 25, 2018
Good young adult book
a young girls diary
Brother back from Vietnam
a young girls diary
Brother back from Vietnam
January 18, 2019
Actual rating: 2.5
September 10, 2021
Preread the book to see if it was appropriate for a young person.
I like the idea of the journal writing style.
I like the idea of the journal writing style.
October 12, 2011
It’s the early 1970s, the Vietnam War is raging, Nixon is in the last phases of his troubled presidency, and fourteen-year-old Kristin Folger is living the life of an average southern California teen, surrounded by her friends, her annoying brother Bobby, her flaky parents, and a grandmother who lives nearby in senior housing. But there is one thing, one very important thing, that makes Kristin’s life anything but average—it is the person who occupies a bedroom in the family attic, the person who went off to serve in Vietnam as Kristin’s brother David, but who came home so changed that Kristin calls him “the ghost.”
This is the heartbreaking story of a family learning to live with a son and brother permanently changed by his experience of war. David had been a star, not only in his family, but also in his school and community. He was clever, funny, well-liked, and enormously talented. As his brother Bobby says, “David had so many plans, you know? He had a great . . . spirit.” Now the badly injured vet who lives in the attic can only stare blankly, uttering occasional cries, and sometimes, whether from physical or psychic pain, throwing himself from his bed onto the floor. But this story is as much about how the other members of the Folger family cope as it is about David. Without giving anything away, we can say that anguish can take many forms, including alcoholism and marital problems. But personal suffering can also lead to growth. And that, in many ways, is Kristin’s story. She is a smart, iconoclastic hero who faces her own feelings of loss, and the way her family has changed since David's injury, head on. The Life History of a Star is a book you won’t easily put down or soon forget.
This is the heartbreaking story of a family learning to live with a son and brother permanently changed by his experience of war. David had been a star, not only in his family, but also in his school and community. He was clever, funny, well-liked, and enormously talented. As his brother Bobby says, “David had so many plans, you know? He had a great . . . spirit.” Now the badly injured vet who lives in the attic can only stare blankly, uttering occasional cries, and sometimes, whether from physical or psychic pain, throwing himself from his bed onto the floor. But this story is as much about how the other members of the Folger family cope as it is about David. Without giving anything away, we can say that anguish can take many forms, including alcoholism and marital problems. But personal suffering can also lead to growth. And that, in many ways, is Kristin’s story. She is a smart, iconoclastic hero who faces her own feelings of loss, and the way her family has changed since David's injury, head on. The Life History of a Star is a book you won’t easily put down or soon forget.
June 1, 2008
I got attracted by this book's cover and title, and that's the reason why I started to read this book. It turned out this book is really different from what I think it will be about. The protagonist is Kristin Folger, 14 years old and the whole book are diaries that she wrote. The book talks about the problems that Kristin are facing from school and home. I found this book connect to myself and probably every teenage girl. Because this book also talks about how Kristin got her first period and how her body is changing. Also, the auther hooks the reader by making curious problems that you would wonder about and want to find out the answer. For example, when i was reading it, it kept on talking about how a ghost in their house make noise and how the family is scared by it. At first, I thought it was a ghost, ghost and I wonder why didn't the family do something about it. But it turned out that that ghost wasn't a ghost, and it was actullay Kristin's brother, who she used to play with a lot. I think this is a really good book that keeps you to read on and on.
June 7, 2011
A little editorializing first. I still can't get used to reading about the Vietnam War as history, but I digress from a great story. Kristin comes of age in high school when her brother has returned from Vietnam with a severe case of PTSD. She calls him "the ghost" and her brother lives in the attic with all of his mental, psychological, and health issues. This has monumental effects on all the familiy members throughout the story. She still manages to be a good kid and the story of her relationship with boy that is a friend Simon. This is a worthwhile story for a teen looking to find bits of themselves in a story set in a different time. As a media Specialist, I would recommend to my students especialy when they are reading "The things they carried" and exploring the political times of the Vietnam War.
October 18, 2012
The story, The Life Histor of a Star is about a girl named Kristin folger. Kristin lives with her Mom and brother she sometimes goes and spends time with her dad. she had a brother but he had died a while she is always talking about how close they used to be. Kristin is always thinking she is on another planet. She is gorwing so her body is developing and say how she hates everyting about her is changing. Her mom is always tring to make her wear dress so turn girly but Kristin never liked being girly. In her diary she likes to write about her daily life and what she does durring her day time.
January 5, 2009
The protagonist is Kristin Folger, who is fourteen years old. It talks about the problems that she is facing in school and at home. I think this book can connect to every teenage girl. Since it talks about how Kristin gets her first period and how her body is changing. I strongly think that the author is doing great on hooking the readers. First of all, she creates an interesting cover to attract readers’ attention. Secondly, she makes readers to wonder a lot in the book by bringing curious situations and problems.
November 9, 2008
At first i thought this is going to be a really boring book but i read it anyways because it has a interesting cover page. But then it turned out to be more interesting than i thought. This book is about a girl who got her period. She found out that her body changed and she became more like a woman. And how she deal with her problems in school and at home. I recommand this book to any teenagers because i think it shows the inner part of teenagers. Its a really good book for me, you and us.
November 23, 2014
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. But what happens when your ghost lingers? Easton's story, set during the Vietnam war, addresses the aftermath of combat faced by one family and (after two wars) is far more relevant today than when she first published in 2001. Heart-wrenching, funny, and occasionally lovely, Easton reminds us that "out of the scraps and debris and beautiful things, we build our lives." I'd amend that to: Scraps, debris, beautiful things, and stories like these.
January 28, 2016
The diary of a fourteen year old during the Vietnam war, this book shows the effects the war, politics and pop culture have on an individual. While I was able to follow most of the numerous 70s references, I feel that today's adolescents would struggle with this. I also feel like the main character is difficult to relate to in some ways, and for these reasons I would probably not recommend this book.
August 6, 2007
I read it some time ago so the details are fuzzy. However this book, was very good. The writing was emotional and beautiful. It also has some historical relevance, as it is a brutal depiction the detrimental and horrific effect of the Vietnam War on US families and returning soldiers. The ending was absolutely amazing, I cried harder than I have ever cried.
May 6, 2008
This book was so bad, I couldn't even finish it. It's written in the style of a journal or diary and is just so pointless. I rarely give up on a book entirely and just abandon it....I usually finish even the worst of books (Never Let Me Go for example), but I just couldn't waste my time with this one. Blech!
April 25, 2013
What can i say about this book. This book was one of the worst books I read,it was basically about a girl from the 1970's and this book was just boring me to death and it wasnt that interseting when i first read it. I actually thought it was a pretty good book when i saw the cover. Well you can't really judge a book by it's cover.
March 5, 2008
a horrible and depressing story . ( thanx samantha )
March 5, 2008
I really liked this book. I thought Marie would hate it, which is why I suggested it. So, my plan worked... and it continues to work! *MUAHAHAHAHA* sorry, marie.
March 5, 2008
its funny and weird in some parts. diary form.
March 27, 2008
This book could be about right now. It's the journal of a girl whose brother was in a useless war. Very funny, sharp and poignant.
October 26, 2008
Sad, funny, great 70s period touches.
April 23, 2009
Oh oh oh. Funny and sad, as a book about surviving the loss war brings should be. Beautiful character, and heartbreaking. Important read, and not just for young adults.
January 19, 2010
A unique story told in journal format.
Read
September 16, 2010It was okay.
June 25, 2012
Extremely funny. A quick read and worth the entertainment.
September 27, 2012
This is how I wanted PDKTF to be... just a little more polished. I love this girl!
May 25, 2009
i love how it's set in the 70's
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews