The Stars of Whistling Ridge

May 31, 2021
With a majority white cast and a dash of fantasy, Baldwin (Beginners Welcome) deftly pens a tribute to the places called home and the rigors of growing up. Ivy Mae Bloom, 12, wants nothing more to put down roots, in direct opposition to her family’s highly nomadic lifestyle of traversing North America in a Winnebago named Martha. Along with her magic-managing, wish-granting, literal-fallen-star mother, travel writer father, and two younger sisters, most of Ivy’s life has been spent moving from place to place—until one night, she makes a wish destined to change everything. Sending the family through a series of calamities, to her aunt’s house in Whistling Ridge, N.C.—a place that immediately feels like home—Ivy soon finds herself drawn to similarly aged Ravi, who’s Indian American, and talkative Simon, their burgeoning friendship bolstered by the mythos surrounding a town legend from the last century. While the novel alternately glides through a vividly painted landscape and stumbles over hazy fantastical ground, Baldwin satisfyingly renders picturesque descriptions of the setting, the awkward painfulness marking the transition from child to teen, and a robust family core. Ages 8–12. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown Ltd.

May 15, 2021
Ivy's impulsive, defiant act has profound consequences for her family and a small town in trouble. Twelve-year-old Ivy and her two younger sisters live on the road with their father, a travel writer, and mother, one of three sisters--fallen stars--who tend the world's magic. Along their travels, Mama helps visitors to their Winnebago camper, using the fireflies she's trapped to grant their wishes. Shy Elena, 10, and annoyingly precocious Sophie, 8, are contented travelers; creative writer Ivy is not. Longing to have privacy, put down roots, and make friends, she steals and releases all her mother's fireflies, making her own wish for a permanent home. Soon after, Ivy has a severe asthma attack that requires resting somewhere near a hospital, and Mama senses that her sister Agatha needs her. The family heads to Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, where they find Agatha ailing and the town's apple orchards hit by a mysterious blight. Intrigued by a local legend, Ivy wonders if it's linked to the deepening crisis. Ivy's a believably conflicted tween on an emotional roller coaster. While realistic elements--the setting especially, from the family's cramped RV to the town and countryside--are detailed and evocative, the underdeveloped fantasy element of the story is not. Sophie's astrophysics factoids only highlight this disconnect. Characters default to White. A warmhearted family tale wrapped in a lackluster fantasy. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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July 1, 2021

Gr 4-7-Twelve-year-old Ivy Mae Bloom is tired of living in an RV, and traveling around the country all the time with her parents and two younger sisters. But her mother is a falling star, who is charged with repairing places in the world where magic is broken, and for that she has to travel. One day Ivy Mae steals nine of her mother's wishing jars, and uses them all to wish for a forever home. The next day, Ivy wakes up with a serious illness that makes it hard for her to breathe. The family quickly drives to her Aunt Agatha's house in Whistling Ridge, North Carolina, a place where Ivy feels an immediate sense of belonging. But there's something seriously wrong in Whistling Ridge, something that's causing the town's famous apples to be filled with smoke. As Ivy learns more about the town and its history, she begins to suspect that the problems are linked to Lydia Lovelace, a woman who supposedly died of a broken heart many years before. With complex, believable characters, and a premise that blends everyday life with an original magical backstory, this novel balances the familiar resentments of adolescence with a high-stakes fantasy plot. It also explores the tensions between multiple characters who care deeply for each other, in spite of having radically different goals. The main characters (Ivy and her family, and her friend Simon) are all described as white (although Ivy's mom and aunts are described as having golden skin and white hair), while one of Ivy's friends, Ravi, is Indian American, and the town librarian is described as having "light brown skin, and shiny straight black hair." Baldwin adeptly develops even the minor characters, like Ravi's father, a pharmacist with an obsession with creating new flavors of ice cream, and one of Simon's two moms, a former chef who makes amazing cupcakes. Since Ivy is an aspiring writer, she often includes embellished language (like frisson and cataclysm) and their definitions into her first-person narrative. VERDICT This well-written, magical story will appeal to fans of Ingrid Law's Savvy, and other novels that blend fantasy with contemporary fiction.-Ashley Larsen, Pacifica Libs., CA

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2021
As Carl Sagan posits, "we're made of star-stuff." Here, Baldwin asks readers to move that fact one step into fantasy and accept that some individuals on this Earth are actually fallen stars who choose to take human form, individuals like Ivy Mae Bloom's mother and her two aunts. Their special status imbues them with magical powers; Mrs. Bloom can barter wishes to those who are troubled and repair slight tears in the Earth's magical fabric. Such responsibility requires constant travel from town to town. And therein lies Ivy's problem. More than anything, Ivy wants a forever home, not the cramped RV her family of five takes on the road 360 days a year. She steals nine of her mom's wishes and requests her "One True Place" -- but these wishes have consequences, landing the family at Aunt Agatha's home on Whistling Ridge. Something is wrong there; the town is decaying, its magic weakened. Ivy's self-absorbed twelve-year-old voice is spot on, as are her frustrations with her sisters, but so is her concern for Whistling Ridge. There are multiple plot threads, but a believable young girl emerges as she tries, sometimes awkwardly and sometimes gracefully, to find her place.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)