Beneath Wandering Stars

by Ashlee Cowles

Overview

As featured on Bustle.com

After her soldier brother is horribly wounded in Afghanistan, Gabriela must honor the vow she made: If anything ever happened to him, she would walk the Camino de Santiago through Spain, making a pilgrimage in his name. The worst part is that the promise stipulates that she must travel with her brother's best friend--a boy she has despised all her life. Her brother is in a coma, and Gabi feels that she has no time to waste, but she is unsure. Will she hesitate too long, or risk her own happiness to keep a promise? An up-close look at the lives of the children of military families, Beneath Wandering Stars takes readers on a journey of love, danger, laughter, and friendship, against all odds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440595837
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	08/01/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
File size:	997 KB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Ashlee Cowles grew up an Army "brat" and subsequently worked with a nonprofit that supports teens in military families. She holds graduate degrees from Duke University and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and teaches literature and philosophy. As a student, Ashlee studied abroad in Spain and walked part of the Camino de Santiago.

Editorial Reviews

06/06/2016
Cowles’s debut focuses on Gabriela “Gabi” Santiago, a half-Mexican Army brat living on a German military base where her father serves as chaplain. Soon after the book opens, Gabi’s older brother, Lucas, a private deployed in Afghanistan, is airlifted to the base’s hospital in a coma. Lucas’s friend Seth feels responsible and explains that Lucas wanted the family to make a pilgrimage along the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain. Seth and Gabi set out to honor Lucas’s wish—despite Gabi’s parents’ objections and the fact that Seth and Gabi don’t get along (though it’s no surprise when their mutual antagonism turns romantic). Cowles, a former Army brat, shows an intimate understanding of military life and uses her characters to examine its difficulties (“Budget cuts. Back-to-back deployments. Missed birthdays”), the toll combat takes on soldiers, and other complicated topics. Though Cowles avoids making Seth and Gabi’s camino overly faith-based, prayer and hope for a miracle regarding Lucas’s injuries are central to their pilgrimage. Teens for whom war hits close to home are a natural audience for this hopeful story of journeys internal and external. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"This is a believable and well-written tale full of references to Homer and Chaucer.... The wide range of characters...are authentic rather than idealized. Readers will feel Gabi's pain—both emotional and physical—as she endures a host of adverse conditions along the route. A realistic fiction title that will appeal to a broad audience of teen readers." —School Library Journal

"Cowles, a former Army brat, shows an intimate understanding of military life and uses her characters to examine its difficulties...the toll combat takes on soldiers, and other complicated topics.... Teens for whom war hits close to home are a natural audience for this hopeful story of journeys internal and external." —Publishers Weekly

"After her older brother, Lucas, is wounded in action...17-year-old Gabriela Santiago decides to honor a promise to her brother by walking the Camino de Santiago.... Gabi's convincing teen voice guides readers through the complexity of emotions and inner struggle. Debut novelist Cowles uses the pilgrimage to spark moments of philosophic and theological reflection. The story will open a portal to families with injured soldiers and propel conversations about war, identity, philosophy, and hardship." —Kirkus Reviews

"A novel that readers will feel they can step right into. From the details, it is clear that the author has walked El Camino and included the experiences that serve the story in a meaningful way. Readers who give it a try will be happy they did." —VOYA Magazine

"Beneath Wandering Stars is about searching, healing, and hoping. Filled with mellifluous language and a powerful message, this beautiful story will appeal to fans of realistic fiction." —VOYA Magazine, Teen reviewer

"Ashlee Cowles brings her own life experience as an 'army brat' to this beautiful, hopeful story. Beneath Wandering Stars reflects on identity, family, love, and belief systems as the characters do as well." —Bustle

"A moving tale of self discovery, forgiveness, and relationship in the great tradition of quest novels. This is only the second time I have really read a book that addressed the life of being a military kid in such authentic ways. This book was, for me, both a mirror and a window. This book further solidified for me a deeper understanding of the call for more diversity and inclusion in YA literature." – Teen Librarian Toolbox/School Library Journal

"There's a emotional depth to this book that is unparalleled, writing that is too brilliant for words.... This is one of the stories that stays with you, making you see things in a different light, and that makes it a book that is truly worth reading." —YA Books Central

From the Publisher

COLORADO BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2017

Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book

High school senior and Army brat Gabi rushes to the military hospital in Germany and finds her brother, Lucas, is in a coma. Her brother had mailed her a copy of The Odyssey, six months before he was injured. Her brother also left a copy of the Iliad and a letter that he gave to his best friend and fellow soldier. The letter requested that Gabi and her father perform a pilgrimage on the Camino del Santiago in Spain if something happened to Lucas. Instead, Gabi ends up traveling this legendary trail with the brother’s best friend, her enemy. In this complicated, multi-faceted YA novel, there are family grudges, romances, and life -shattering tragedies. Danger is ever present in military families; decisions are not easy; and heroes cannot stay home. This author clearly knows about growing up in a military family. Teens will value Gabi’s voice and know that more attention must be paid to this part of our world. Reviewer: Jill Walton; Ages 14 up.

Children's Literature - Jill Walton

Gabriela Santiago has been a military brat her whole life, never setting down roots in one place. She looks forward to college so she can leave the Army post in Germany where her father is stationed and attend the University of Texas in the fall with her boyfriend. Her priorities change when her soldier brother, Lucas, is injured in Afghanistan and remains in a coma. His best friend Seth, who has always irritated Gabi, brings a message from Lucas to the family: take the pilgrimage of their namesake, El Camino de Santiago, through northern Spain on his behalf. Gabi is ready to do anything for her brother, and when Seth volunteers to accompany her, she reluctantly agrees to spend the next few weeks with him at her side. If nothing else, she hopes he will tell her exactly how Lucas got injured. As they meet other pilgrims along the way, Gabi learns something else: Seth is on this journey as much for Lucas as for himself. The two grow closer, and Gabi hopes for peace and recovery for both her brother and his friend. Fortunately, this novel does not preach about war, religion, and PTSD. Instead, it introduces a narrator who is open-minded to her own life circumstances as well as those around her. The fleshed-out characters, and literal and emotional journeys of Gabi and Seth, make this a novel that readers will feel they can step right into. From the details, it is clear that the author has walked El Camino and included the experiences that serve the story in a meaningful way. This book may not fly off the shelves despite its worthiness, but readers who give it a try will be happy they did. Reviewer: Deena Viviani; Ages 12 to 18.

VOYA, August 2016 (Vol. 39, No. 3) - Deena Viviani

When military brat Gabriela Santiago learns that her brother is in a coma and may never wake up, she is more than eager to complete his dying wish. That is until she discovers she will have to walk five hundred miles with Lucas’s annoying friend, Seth. Beneath Wandering Stars is about searching, healing, and hoping. Filled with mellifluous language and a powerful message, this beautiful story will appeal to fans of realistic fiction. Reviewer: Maia Raynor, Teen Reviewer; Ages 12 to 18.

VOYA, August 2016 (Vol. 39, No. 3) - Maia Raynor

07/01/2016
Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Gabi Santiago has been an army brat all of her life. Currently stationed in Germany, she is biding her time on the U.S. base until she can move back to Texas—the closest place she has to a home—and attend UT Austin. But Gabi's plans are derailed when her older brother Lucas, deployed in Afghanistan, is gravely wounded. In a coma and unable to speak, Lucas has communicated with Gabi in other ways, most notably in a letter he left with best friend Seth that asks them to travel the Camino de Santiago in Spain. There is no love lost between Gabi and Seth, but as they make their pilgrimage along the famed route, they inevitably come to understand each other and reveal some closely held truths. What, for example, did Gabi do to enrage her father while they lived in Texas? And what, exactly, was Seth's role the day that Lucas was injured? Cowles answers these and other questions in due time as Gabi slowly realizes, despite prior denials, that she's on a journey of self-discovery. This is a believable and well-written tale full of references to Homer and Chaucer. The descriptions of the often crowded and touristy Camino de Santiago and the wide range of characters who populate it are authentic rather than idealized. Readers will feel Gabi's pain—both emotional and physical—as she endures a host of adverse conditions along the route. In the end, her eventual maturation, acceptance of her responsibilities, and changing feelings toward Seth seem organic rather than forced. VERDICT A realistic fiction title that will appeal to a broad audience of teen readers.—Melissa Kazan, Horace Mann School, NY

School Library Journal

2016-06-01
After her older brother, Lucas, is wounded in action and rendered comatose, 17-year-old Gabriela Santiago decides to honor a promise to her brother by walking the Camino de Santiago alongside Seth Russo, the unlikeliest of companions.Gabi, a half-white and half-Mexican Army brat, hates many things about life in the military and is eager to leave Germany to start college at the University of Texas, where she is to return to a civilian life and reunite with her high school friends and boyfriend. However, once Gabi learns of her brother's critical condition and his request that she walk the pilgrimage, her plans get derailed, With only weeks till she graduates, she and Seth—Lucas' best friend and fellow soldier, a young white man—hike an abbreviated three-week journey. Along the way, their mutual love for Lucas unites them even as their temperaments separate them. While Gabi walks with her brother in mind, she also hopes to repair her fractured relationship with her father. Seth also has his demons and is wrestling to right his wrongs—and his daily drinking serves as a Band-Aid from the horror he witnessed and experienced in Afghanistan. Gabi's convincing teen voice guides readers through the complexity of emotions and inner struggle. Despite pacing issues and an unfortunate typo in one of the book's few snatches of Spanish ("Buenas dias" will induce winces), debut novelist Cowles uses the pilgrimage to spark moments of philosophic and theological reflection.Though a bit oversimplified at times, the story will open a portal to families with injured soldiers and propel conversations about war, identity, philosophy, and hardship. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews