Liza's Star Wish [Library Binding]

Diane Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

While unwillingly spending the summer at her grandmother's house in Rockport, Texas, fourteen-year-old Liza gains insights into relationships with family and friends, old and new, and into the effects of her younger sister's death on everyone.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10. Liza Brody, who was introduced in Liza's Blue Moon (Greenwillow, 1995), is now 14 and is quite unhappy about the prospect of having to spend the summer in the small Texas town of Rockport so that she and her mother can care for her grandmother, who has broken a hip. They leave Dad at home in San Antonio and attempt to escape the lingering heartache over Liza's younger sister, Holly, who drowned the year before. The only redeeming part of this summer is the e-mail correspondence Liza maintains with her boyfriend back home and the long-awaited visit from her best friend, Chloe, who moved to Houston the year before. But the promised reunion is marred by the fact that Liza and Chloe have drifted apart. The longer Liza is around her, the more she realizes that she doesn't even like her anymore. The abruptness of this new loss further debilitates Liza as she tries to deal with the changes in her life and the changes her grandmother is going through as she ages. Liza's struggles make for a heartfelt story about relationships, loss, and the discovery that death does not have to be an ending, and that hope can come from tragedy.?Linda Bindner, Athens Clarke County Library, GA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

After a year of the grief and turmoil following her sister Holly's drowning, Liza, 14, doesn't want to leave San Antonio to spend the summer in Rockport, Texas, with her cranky, self- centered, bigoted grandmother, Mama Lacey, who has broken her hip. Liza's whole family is still grieving; her mother reads lots of self-help books and tries to pull things together with organized discussions. Liza is angry at everyone, and not always reasonably: Among her targets are her best friend, Chloe, for moving to Houston, and Holly, for dying. Once Liza is in Rockport, sending E- mails to her sweetly individualistic boyfriend makes home seem closer. When Chloe visits, Liza is surprised to find out that best friends can do a lot of growing apart in different cities, and recognizes a side of Chloe that is disquieting. As a reaction to Chloe's rigid perception of honesty, Liza begins to navigate her own path of tolerance and understanding. With skill, Stevens (Liza's Blue Moon, 1995) depicts the complicated nuances of emotions and behavior within a family--the hopes, disappointments, misplaced but well-intentioned efforts, and small acts of courage that hit home. As a result, Liza and her family are very real, while Chloe, a necessary foil, is only slightly less believable. A thoughtful novel, written with great feeling. (Fiction. 9-11) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Library Binding: 183 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688153100
• ISBN-13: 978-0688153106
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,537,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a terrific sequel to Liza's Blue Moon, February 2, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Albany NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liza's Star Wish (Library Binding)

Again, I give a "10" to this book. Diane Stevens can really write the perfect Young Adult book. Like her first book, this book made me laugh aloud several times and cry as well. Absolutely one of the best books that I have read this year.