The Boy Who Ate Stars [Hardcover]

Kochka (Author), Sarah Adams (Translator)

Book Description

Matthew wasn't like anyone I'd ever met. He could be his own planet, become his own TV channel. Being with him was like sitting in a shouting whirlwind. He was a real mystery, and one I was determined to solve.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-This stunning first novel is an eloquent meditation on autism, love, and courage. Having just moved to a Paris apartment, 12-year-old Lucy can't wait to meet her neighbors. She encounters Marie, the loving mother of autistic four-year-old Matthew, and Maougo, their silent Russian nanny. Fascinated by the boy, Lucy and her friend Theo try to understand what life is like for him. Lucy is also determined to help a family friend's fancy dog discover his wild side. Poetic writing is interspersed with the protagonist's wry remarks on mundane topics such as her clueless parents. She compares Maougo to a Russian matrouska because one must peel off layers in order to know her. The description of autism is mysterious and elusive. Matthew is characterized as a small independent planet spinning inside of himself, and as an extraterrestrial who feels reality intensely. The celestial imagery continues as Lucy, seeing the boy's fascination with a jar of sparkling marbles, observes that he eats stars as he goes to sleep. Little happens in the book, although the author does manage to change the pampered pooch's life and he becomes quite the rogue. Ultimately, Lucy decides she will be a teacher of autistic children, vowing to do away with all prejudices, languages, and rules, and to throw herself into outer space without being frightened. Some French references will be unfamiliar to American readers but there is much beauty in this spare and lyrical look at a condition that is so difficult to understand.-B. Allison Gray, John Jermain Library, Sag Harbor, NY
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About the Author

Kochka, born in Lebanon to a French father and a Lebanese mother,

now lives in France. The Boy Who Ate Stars is her first book.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers; Tra edition (March 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416900381
• ISBN-13: 978-1416900382
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Night eater, May 29, 2006

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Boy Who Ate Stars (Hardcover)

Reviewing children's books originally published in foreign countries is a somewhat complicated process. You've the obvious cultural differences, of course. Then there's the translation. How much fault or praise do you heap upon the person who has the unenviable job of transferring an author's vision from one language to another? Finally, there's the book itself. After all the work that's gone into it, and after all the time and effort to bring it to the American market, was it worth it in the end? By and large I am very positive on getting more foreign-language overseas literary hits translated and into our American bookstores and libraries. In this year alone we've seen amazing titles like, Guus Kuijer's, "The Book of Everything", and Sjoerd Kuyper's, "The Swan's Child". Now we've a book from Lebanese born French citizen (and one-namer) Kochka entitled, "The Boy Who Ate Stars". It's a book with a rather interesting premise, but I'm afraid that something somewhere went awry. Whether it was the writing itself or the translation, Kochka's book shows a great deal of promise. Here's hoping perhaps some of her future books will succeed where this one failed.

Twelve-year-old Lucy and her family have just moved into a new apartment. At first, Lucy decides to take on the enormous challenge of meeting and befriending everyone in her new apartment building. Then she meets the residents directly above her and immediately her plans change. One night the apartment above her own is privy to some incredibly loud noises. Lucy's father charges up the stairs to yell at the residents, then comes back down subdued. It seems that their upstairs neighbors are a single librarian mom, a Russian nanny, and a boy named Matthew. Matthew is autistic, and curious Lucy is unable to get a suitable definition of "autism" out of anyone she knows. As a result, Lucy turns Matthew into a kind of project. She will help him to connect with people outside of himself. At the same time, she's also trying to teach a lapdog named Francois, who belongs to a couple friends of her parents, to break out of his comfortable, obedient shell. Matthew's story and the story of Francois are paralleled against one another, showing the progress and breakthroughs of both boy and dog together.

Now, we have two different authors at work here. The original writer, Kochka, and translator, Sarah Adams. Putting the rest of the book entirely aside, I kept finding myself wondering how closely Adams was adhering to the original text. Some of the more awkward sentences may be direct translations. For example, there are a couple phrases along the lines of, "Secretly, I was going to take that dog under my wing so he could learn to fly". Other times, though, the translation doesn't seem to quite fit, as when Lucy says that, "I pretended butter wouldn't melt in my mouth". More at fault are the moments when odd America slang pops up unexpectedly. When Lucy discovers later in the story that she'll get to keep Francois while his owners are out of town she erupts with the word, "Wicked!". Aside from the fact that even in America this word isn't exactly universal, it doesn't fit with the rest of the France-based book. Altogether, some of the writing feels like it has a herky-jerky start-and-stop feel to it. There's no way of telling if that's the work of Adams or Kochka, though. And after reading through the book carefully, I think the blame rests with Kochka.

A translator can only give you what already exists. So if the narrative itself is uneven, it's not their fault. In this book, the story often jumps from scene to scene and place to place without much cohesive connection. "We ran into Matthew who was taking a cookie for a walk. It was raining. We were amazed, firstly because it was the kind of weather for staying indoors, and secondly because Matthew was treating the cookie like a king. Under the damp song of the sky, sheltered by an arbor, Marie told us a story. That night Theo couldn't sleep". Three distinct events but there isn't any comfortable transition between them. Add into the odd "damp song of the sky", which comes entirely out of the blue and the book makes for a more difficult read than it really had to be.

I don't know much about autism myself, so I can't say whether or not Kochka's Matthew is a good or a poor example of the condition. For all I know, Matthew is a perfectly rendered autistic. However, that didn't keep me from becoming particularly uncomfortable when Kochka would equate Matthew with various animalia. Sometimes parallels would be drawn between a boy that Lucy sees as comfortably wild, and a dog that needs to learn how to be free. Says Lucy, "Of course, Matthew would make the perfect trainer to help Francois find his animal instincts again!". Later when he's stroking her hair she says, "Instead of letting me stroke him, this special cat was stroking me". Further on Lucy writes a definition of the boy. "Matthew: a chameleon with a heart made of modeling clay". He's everything EXCEPT a human being to Lucy, and her patronizing attitude towards him was enough to make me particularly uncomfortable.

I think this book had some nice moments and perhaps some judicious editing would have made it a little more palatable. Still, whether it's the translation or the writing itself, there's something about, "The Boy Who Ate Stars", that just don't feel right. It's a fine book for what it is, but nothing too extraordinary. I wouldn't bother buying it for a kid. Autism's a tricky subject, and this book simply doesn't convey its complexity. Nice story, but not particularly noteworthy.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different POV, August 1, 2006

By 

KendyC (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boy Who Ate Stars (Hardcover)

I would like to disagree with the other reviews. I thought this book was thought provoking and gave beautiful insights about autism.

The fact that this book was translated also did not bother me. Sure, there were a few sentences that were a little strange, but seeing as how the author comes from a different country I can forgive that. I love reading books from foreign authors because they offer a different perspective which is something all children should experience. I could not possibly expect the author to explain all of the dissimilarities between her culture and my own and vice versa. If you don't get it, do some research.

Yes, autistic people do communicate, but it is not in a usual way. Lucy, the narrator of the story, knows this and is determined to show everyone that Matthew "talks" in his own unique language. When he plays with people's hair he is communicating to the outside world.

Overall, I thought 'The Boy Who Ate Stars' was a wonderful read. Kochka did a great job of depicting the relationship between an empathetic girl and a boy with autism. This book is a good example how friendship can change how we experience the world. I would consider this a must-read for children and adults.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dark Star, September 25, 2005

By 

BeatleBangs1964 (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Boy Who Ate Stars (Paperback)

This book reminds me of Stephen Stills' classic, "Dark Star." In fact, it is more like a black hole, that is a hypothetical void allowing no light to penetrate as a result of a collapsing star.


Lucy, 12 is determined to get to know every one of her neighbors on her block. She decides to work her way up from the ground floor, literally. When Lucy meets single mother Marie, her son Matthew, 4 and Matthew's helper, Maougo, she is determined to get to know Matthew better. Matthew has autism.

Marie explains autism as best she can; Matthew likes to spin himself as well as discrete objects; he had difficulty in pronoun usage; his verbalizations are sporadic and he quotes what he hears from television. He is bound to routine and insists on listening to his favorite tape each night. Maougo appears to have rapport with Matthew and lets him play with her hair, which seems to be one of his favorite activities. Upon meeting Lucy, Matthew plays with her hair.

I didn't like the way Bettelheim was quoted, calling autistics "empty fortresses" who are "trapped within their own walls" and don't communicate which simply isn't true. Bettelheim was not a real psychoanalyst, as the author claims he was in this book. The definition Lucy's seemingly impersonal parents give her for autism is also unsatisfactory as is the dictionary definition she finds, which said autism is a "pathological withdrawal into an interior world resulting in a loss of contact with reality and an inability to communicate with others." That is not true.

Autism is a neurobiological condition that is NOT caused by one's parents, as Bettelheim claimed and is NOT an inability to communicate. Marie was a good mother to her son. It is true that autism affects communication, but it is a condition that primarily affects sensory processing and integration. That in turn affects communication.

I would have thought that by this day and age such misperceptions about autism would have long been disabused and permanently put to rest.