Star by Star

Name: William Joseph
Price range: $

by Sheena Wilkinson

Interest age: 12 to 16
Reading age: 12+

Published by Little Island, 2017

Coming-of-age
Historical

About this book

Fifteen-year-old Stella was brought up to change the world by her suffragette mother in Manchester. But when her mum dies in the 1918 flu epidemic that sweeps the world at the end of the First World War, she returns to her mum’s native Northern Ireland to live with an aunt she has never met.

The war has ended and women (over the age of 30 with property) are about to vote for the first time: a right they’ve been fighting for since the 1870s.

This is a beautifully written and fascinating story, which shines a light on an important part of history that may be unknown to many teenagers.

Stella is a bold heroine and this is an inspiring read too, showing readers that history is made person by person – like stars coming out one by one to brighten the night sky. And maybe they can shape the world themselves if they get involved in something they are passionate about?

About the author

Sheena Wilkinson has won many awards for her fiction including five Children's Books Ireland Awards, most recently the Honour Award for Fiction for 2017's Star By Star, which was also shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards. Described in The Irish Times as 'one of our foremost writers for young people', Sheena received a Major Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2013. She teaches creative writing in settings ranging from universities to prisons and runs a young writers' group in Belfast. Sheena lives in County Down where, when she's not writing or reading, she's either singing or walking in the forest - sometimes at the same time.

Read an interview with Sheena Wilkinson