Counting Stars [Hardcover]

David Almond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2002

David Almond’s extraordinary novels have established him as an author of unique insight and skill. These stories encapsulate his endless sense of mystery and wonderment, as they weave a tangible tapestry of growing up in a large, loving family. Here are the kernels of his novels—joy and fear, darkness and light, the
healing power of love and imagination in overcoming the wounds of ignorance and prejudice. These stories merge memory and dream, the real and the imagined, in a collection of exquisite tenderness.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the elegant, hypnotic, thoroughly engaging Counting Stars, British author David Almond, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Kit's Wilderness and a Printz honor for Skellig, shares a collection of stories about his childhood "in a small steep town overlooking the River Tyne." Echoing the bright, witty banter of his large family in pages of fascinating dialogue, Almond recounts tales of his Catholic upbringing (where counting stars in the sky past 100 is a blasphemous attempt to know the unknown), the deaths of his father and sister, poignant stories of local boys and girls with bitter plights, a lonely old woman who keeps her lost baby in a jar, stolen kisses, whispered rumors, dreams of angels, sensual memories of warm grass and sunshine, lemon curd and marmalade. The stories are not chronological, but thematic, and they are simply beautiful. No one captures the mysticism of childhood like Almond, and his readers will be overjoyed to see the ways in which his own history is mirrored in the odd, magical worlds created in his novels. In the author's words, the stories "merge memory and dream, the real and the imagined, truth and lies. And, perhaps, like all stories, they are an attempt to reassemble what is fragmented, to rediscover what has been lost." Almond paints a landscape of the soul and shows his readers the magic of humanity. It seems he can do no less! (Ages 13 and older) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly

In this evocative collection of autobiographical vignettes, Almond's writing exudes the same haunting mood that characterizes his novels (Skellig; Kit's Wilderness; Heaven Eyes). Here, readers can trace connecting threads between his published works and his childhood experiences as a sensitive, pensive English child preoccupied by the mysteries of religion, death and immortality. Rather than moving linearly, stories, set in the author's predominantly Catholic neighborhood, provide a spinning carousel of surreal images connecting different eras and piecing together fragments of memories. Town outcasts seem to change form as Almond reveals their poignant histories. Family members who die untimely deaths make surprising reappearances ("The week after our sister Barbara died she was seen walking hand in hand with Mam on this road toward the field... [They] walked with a fluency which neither had in their lives, for Barbara had been an invalid child and Mam was already badly damaged by arthritis"). Mam re-emerges in one tale as a vibrant young dancer when her son gazes at an old photograph taken during her girlhood. In another, three deceased family members each define the word "death." At the heart of every selection, readers will feel the presence of the budding young writer gracefully, yet often sadly, riding waves of change while trying to make sense out of the world around him. The montage of scenes "merge[s] memory and dream, the real and the imagined, truth and lies," and expresses pearls of wisdom that will remain fixed in readers' imaginations. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 205 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (April 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385729464
• ISBN-13: 978-0385729468
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,658,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

author spotlight
"Writing can be difficult, but sometimes it really does feel like a kind of magic. I think that stories are living things--among the most important things in the world."--David Almond

David Almond is the winner of the 2001 Michael L. Printz Award for Kit's Wilderness, which has also been named best book of the year by School Library Journal, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly. His first book for young readers, Skellig, is a Printz Honor winner.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Miraculous beings living in a miraculous world . . .
Maybe it comes from my religious upbringing (I grew up in a big Catholic family): I do feel that we are miraculous beings living in a miraculous world. Sometimes the explanations we're given--and the possibilities we're offered--are just too restricted and mechanistic. Stories offer us a place to explore (as writers and readers) what it is to be fully human. I do think that young people are interested in the major questions--Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Is there a God?--and they're willing to contemplate all kinds of possibilities. They haven't yet become tired by such questions.

Brutality has to be allowed its place . . .
Ten minutes of TV news is enough to convince anybody that the world is a pretty brutal place. We aren't yet perfect people living in a perfect world--and we never will be--so brutality has to be allowed its place. But the world also contains great tenderness, joy, hope, etc. I suppose that in my books I explore a world and people that are made up of opposites: good and evil, light and darkness, the beautiful and the ugly. And I hope that in the end, goodness, light, and beauty will have some kind of upper hand.

Stories as a whole form a kind of community . . .
The stories in Counting Stars don't have a straightforward chronological progression, but there are many links between the different stories. They form a kind of mosaic. Themes hinted at in one story are developed in another. Characters are seen in different situations/settings. I like to think that the stories as a whole form a kind of community or family. It's often said that there's a big difference between writing short stories and novels, but I'm not so sure. I think of my novels as a series of scenes/chapters, each of which I write with the same kind of attention I'd give to a short story.

A readership of four . . .
When I began to write Counting Stars, I wanted to write about my sisters and brother, and to use their real names, so I needed their permission. I worried that they wouldn't be happy about the book. So I invited them all to my house for dinner, and afterwards I told them my plans, and I nervously read one of the first stories, "The Fusilier." If they had said no to using their real names, Counting Stars would have been a very different book--and maybe wouldn't have been written at all. But they said yes! Over the next couple of years, after I'd written each story, I sent copies to my brother and three sisters, so that they could see how things were developing. So, in a sense, the book was written for a readership of four people.

Staring out of the window . . .
I write at home, in a little office overlooking the back garden. I scribble in an artist's sketchbook and type onto an AppleMac computer. I work all day--though some of that time will involve staring out of the window and eating apples. But I also travel quite a lot, so I'm used to writing on trains, in hotels, etc.

I used to wonder if I'd ever be able to write a novel properly . . .
For many years, I wrote nothing but short stories, and I used to wonder if I'd ever be able to write a novel properly. I wrote the stories in Counting Stars before I wrote Skellig, my first children's novel. I wrote them over a two-year period. As I wrote them, I found myself exploring childhood experience from a child's point of view. I rediscovered the powerful imaginative and emotional nature of childhood. Really, writing these stories changed me into a writer for children/young adults.

Messing about with paper clips . . .
I always wanted to be a writer. I wrote little books and stories as a boy, and wanted to see my books on the shelves of our little local library right next to my favorite books: King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, The Day of the Triffids, and The Adventures of Turkey. But as for writing, I simply like it all--right from creating new stories to messing about with paper clips. The best piece of writing advice I've ever received: Don't give up.

It's often children who read the books with the most insight . . .
I think that children can be much more perceptive, creative, and intelligent than we give them credit for. I see this in the many letters I get from my readers and in the things that they say when I meet them. Some adults assume that children will never "get" the more complex aspects of my books, but in fact it's often children who read the books with the most insight.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written and poignant., July 26, 2004

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Counting Stars (Readers Circle) (Mass Market Paperback)

David Almond is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including the marvelous SKELLIG, about things with wings; the mysterious KIT'S WILDERNESS, about things deep underground; and the peculiar HEAVEN'S EYES, about runaway orphans finding family in the presence of a simple, innocent girl. Almond's books are filled with metaphysical darkness and mystery. If anyone has ever wondered where his ideas come from, COUNTING STARS provides clues as it is a collection of short stories based on his boyhood growing up Catholic in northern England.

One in a large family of siblings, Almond experienced several debilitating blows early in life. The loss of a sister haunts the book, along with the untimely death of his father. These events lend a melancholy tone to COUNTING STARS. Readers of his other work will recognize the mines, the spirits of lost loved ones and a village simpleton, who claims to see visions of the Virgin Mary.

COUNTING STARS is darker than Almond's previous books. It is possible that some readers may be upset or confused by stories that have disturbing themes beyond death and displacement. One story,

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Stars" shines, October 31, 2002

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Counting Stars (Hardcover)

You've read his stories about bird-men in the garage, ghosts of prehistoric humans, and strange girls with webbed fingers. Now read a unique, wistful book -- half autobiography, half fictional short stories -- that goes back to David Almond's childhood in a small English mining town.

Almond goes back to Stoneygates and looks at things through the eyes of a child -- the world is a magical, mystical place, where sadness and joy lurk around every corner. He writes of a lonely old woman who keeps her dead baby in a jar, and what happens to the lost baby after her death. He writes of a tender first love with a girl at the church. He writes of a retarded woman who claims to have been visited by the Virgin Mary, of the deaths of his parents and sister, a homeless man whose voice was stolen by a fanatical headmistress, of a crisis of faith, of a tormenting bully, of a trip into a fairground "Time Machine," a kindly but strict priest who claims that to count more than a hundred stars is blasphemy, and of angels who show him what he most longs to see.

It's impossible to tell how much of this is true, and how much is imagined. But the elements woven into the story are disarmingly real. Death, life, God, faith, suffering and love are presented in a uniquely surreal manner. His descriptions are starkly evocative; he may describe an angel merely as looking like a woman, but more perfect, and the reader will understand perfectly well what he is saying. Even though it's clear he often does not agree with some of the people in this (the strict priest, for example) Almond never treats them with scorn or mockery unless they are genuinely cruel.

It's a beautiful glimpse of what went into the creation of such modern classics as "Skellig," "Kit's Wilderness" and "Heaven Eyes." A treasure.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth, Memories and Bits Made Up...., October 5, 2002

By 

Gilmoreren (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Counting Stars (Hardcover)

Maybe you can remember what it was like to be a child, to come from a large family and to experience long summer days where you explore your neighbourhood, and yourself. Maybe you're still lucky enough to be in your childhood.

Either way, you are guaranteed to recognise from Almond's amazing narrative style, that he certainly is capable to capturing his own childhood experiences in a dazzling and highly spiritual way.

This collection of short stories is yet another high point in Almond's career. Coming from the man who Janni Howker calls "The Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Children's Fiction" this collection of stories will not only entertain you, they may also inspire you to explore your own past.

Once you've read these stories, read Almond's other books. Seriously, I guarantee you will not be disappointed.