THE TROUBLE WITH SHOOTING STARS

A 12-year-old with severe facial burns hides from the world—until she meets the new neighbors, who fly a magic zeppelin and babysit infant stars.

The accident that burned Luna and left her father unable to walk sapped all joy from her life. A compression mask covering half her face is both uncomfortable and weird looking. With Luna’s arm injuries, even drawing brings pain. Her large Italian American family loves her, but their disgusted pity at her facial difference only enhances her panic and shame. Late one night, Luna spies new people moving into the house next door. When Luna follows these new kids into the woods behind her Staten Island home, she discovers them caring for baby stars, and Alessandro and Chiara bring Luna into their world. During the day, narrator Luna is a terrified girl with an overprotective mother, unwilling to speak even with her best friend. But by night, she’s one of the spazzatrici, polishing the sky. Readers familiar with disability tropes will anticipate Luna’s choice: Will she use a star’s magic to wish herself uninjured, or will she learn that the true magic was inside her all along? While Luna’s journey attempts to avoid the shopworn magical-cure trope, it does not wholly succeed; her happy ending requires discovering not just inner, but also outer beauty. The primary cast is an all-white one.

Sweet and heartwarming—but unsettlingly conflicted