The Lost Stars by Hannah Cumming

The Lost Stars by Hannah Cumming
Buy The Lost Stars by Hannah Cumming at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Ruth Ng
Summary: There's some beautiful artwork in this book but I felt, sadly, that it was let down by a disappointing story.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: June 2011
Publisher: Child's Play
ISBN: 978-1846434167
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Everyone in the world is terribly busy, rushing around, using all their gadgets and gizmos and lights, far too busy to look up into the night sky and see the stars. The stars get fed up and so they decide to go away on holiday for a while. No one notices until one day the power runs out and suddenly everyone is in the dark...

I could see the message this book was trying to get across, encouraging us to slow down and enjoy the natural beauties of the world before it's too late, but I felt that the story didn't work as well as it could have. The stars go on holiday, to a beach, and after searching across the whole world some children manage to find them. They promise to never forget the stars again and so the stars come back to shine in the night sky. I know this is a children's picture book, and I usually love imaginative tales but I felt with this story if the author was trying to make an environmental point then perhaps she should have written about a realistic situation, rather than the stars packing their bags and getting on a bus! I must admit I do have a particularly inquisitive four year old who is always very keen to know the correct information about anything and everything, so stars climbing down ladders to get on a bus takes some explaining...if your little one is happy to just enjoy the story perhaps this book will sit more happily on your bookshelf!

We loved the illustrations though which are wonderful. Cumming has a lovely style to her pictures, and several of them are packed with lots of details to discover. One in particular depicts a town and there's a wonderful voyeuristic feel to it as you can see into various windows of houses and shops and businesses to spy on what everyone is doing. The characters are all simply drawn and very cute, and I liked that some of the images are full page whereas others are panels, a bit like a comic.

I would definitely recommend borrowing this book - it's interesting to look through all the pictures and see what's going on and so makes a nice story to share together with an older toddler. You may find you love it and want your own copy, but we didn't feel this was a book we'd return to read repeatedly.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: Other stories with an environmental theme that you might enjoy include One World by Michael Foreman and The Trouble with Dragons by Debi Gliori.

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