Star Hatchling [Paperback]

Margaret Bechard (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

The female-dominated culture of a distant planet encounters human beings for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Shem and Cheko may have tails, gills, and crablike pincers, but they bicker just like any other brother and sister in this well-developed sci-fi story by the author of Really No Big Deal (Viking, 1994). When they come upon a strange, four-limbed creature in the forest, Cheko's joy at finding something to relieve her boredom overwhelmes Shem's caution; rather than take it to their elders, the two hide it in a cave and treat it as a pet. "It," in fact, is Hanna, a sullen human teen accidentally ejected from a passing starship-wishing, too late, that she'd paid more attention in her Survival and First Contact classes. Despite hilarious misunderstandings-Shem and Cheko think Hanna is male and never are enlightened-and constant arguing, the three manage to share adventures both mild and wild. Hanna ends up rescuing her "Indigie" friends as well as the human adult sent to rescue her, and, to Cheko's disgust, Shem develops an interest in an attractive female "Outsider" from a neighboring settlement. Bechard constructs a believable, complex setting for her characters, a world presided over by sentient trees and beset with problems that are not neatly solved at the end. Put this next to Annette Klause's Alien Secrets (Delacorte, 1993) as a satisfying reminder that juvenile science fiction needn't be simplistic.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-7. Hanna, a Terran, accidentally lands on a new planet without her family. Before she can be rescued, she is found by Shem and Cheko, a brother and sister who appear rather lizardlike to earthly eyes. In chapters that alternate Hanna's point of view with Shem's and Cheko's, readers see how different each culture seems to a member of the other; gender, facial gestures, food, and family all appear one way to insiders and another to outsiders. The plot's premise is that some feeling of friendship can still pass between the groups, but that's finally less interesting than the what-if premise, which takes "diversity training" into action. Brother-sister interaction will seem familiar, but the story will appeal most to readers who like speculative sf. Mary Harris Veeder --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140375813
• ISBN-13: 978-0140375817
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,417,099 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 Remarkable!, March 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Hatchling (Paperback)

All I have to say is this book is better than many adult science fiction stories I have read. This author has realistic names for alien life forms. Nothing like "Gork" or "Snirk", but names that sound like they could've been here on Earth. Also, the point of view technique she uses is similar to that in "Morning Girl", but much more contrasting, and beautiful. This is a book for all ages...NO MATTER who it was written for!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for Advanced Readers, October 15, 2008

By 

D. Salerni (Chester County, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Star Hatchling (Paperback)

I am truly sorry to see that this book has gone out of print. I have used Star Hatchling with advanced 5th grade readers for almost 10 years, and I now have to buy replacement copies from obscure, used sources.

Star Hatchling turns the traditional science fiction story on its ear. Two children discover a creature that has apparently fallen from the stars. It is horribly alien and ugly. Its habits are strange and its attempts to communicate, incomprehensible. The children keep the creature hidden while they try to figure out what it is, where it came from, and what it wants.

The twist is this: the children are amphibious beings native to a strange planet, and the hideous creature they have discovered is a human girl.

Told in multiple first person, Star Hatchling is a wonderful science fiction story designed to encourage readers to make inferences and use context clues to interpret new vocabulary. Too often, advanced readers know so much vocabulary on their own that they don't have strategies to deal with strange, new words. In Star Hatchling, they will be forced to rediscover the skill of learning new words, as they interpret the very strange vocabulary of the protagonists.

I love this book, and I love teaching it in my class. I'm off right now to grab a few more used copies for my class before they disappear. I hope the author seeks to republish this book. It deserves to be rediscovered.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for people interestes in aliens., October 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Hatchling (Paperback)

If you like books about aliens and weird stuff this is a book for you.The book is called Star Hatchling.Those of you who like Margaret Bechard books this is a perfct book for you.Star Hatchling is about a boy named Cheko and a girl named Shem.They went to the forest one day and found an alien, Cheko likes it so he keeps it as a pet.Shem is not sure about this alien because it makes strange noises.The aliens name is Hanna.What is Shem going to do about the alien?Is Cheko going to let it go or keep it? The characters in Star Hatchling are preet interesting.Cheko is a nice person and he loves animals.Cheko is very interesting to know about because he does alot of interesting things in Star Hatchling.On the other hand Shem hates animals and only cares about herself.Shem is not that interesting to know about because Shem is mean and doesnt do anything interesting in Star Hatchling.So this book is with two great characters and the book is great.