The Silver Star : A Novel
From one of the bestselling memoirists of all time, a stunning and heartbreaking novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world-a triumph of imagination and storytelling.

It is 1970. "Bean" Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman "who flees every place she's ever lived at the first sign of trouble," takes off to "find herself." She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that's been in the family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, non-conformist. But when school starts in the fall, it's Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.

The author of The Glass Castle, hyper-alert to abuse of adult power, has written a gorgeous, riveting, heartbreaking novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love the world despite its flaws and injustices.
1113741640
The Silver Star : A Novel
From one of the bestselling memoirists of all time, a stunning and heartbreaking novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world-a triumph of imagination and storytelling.

It is 1970. "Bean" Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman "who flees every place she's ever lived at the first sign of trouble," takes off to "find herself." She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that's been in the family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, non-conformist. But when school starts in the fall, it's Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.

The author of The Glass Castle, hyper-alert to abuse of adult power, has written a gorgeous, riveting, heartbreaking novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love the world despite its flaws and injustices.
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The Silver Star : A Novel

The Silver Star : A Novel

by Jeannette Walls

Narrated by Jeannette Walls

Unabridged — 7 hours, 48 minutes

The Silver Star : A Novel

The Silver Star : A Novel

by Jeannette Walls

Narrated by Jeannette Walls

Unabridged — 7 hours, 48 minutes

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Overview

From one of the bestselling memoirists of all time, a stunning and heartbreaking novel about an intrepid girl who challenges the injustice of the adult world-a triumph of imagination and storytelling.

It is 1970. "Bean" Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman "who flees every place she's ever lived at the first sign of trouble," takes off to "find herself." She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that's been in the family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Maddox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants, and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, non-conformist. But when school starts in the fall, it's Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens to Liz in the car with Maddox.

The author of The Glass Castle, hyper-alert to abuse of adult power, has written a gorgeous, riveting, heartbreaking novel about triumph over adversity and about people who find a way to love the world despite its flaws and injustices.

Editorial Reviews

Wall Street Journal

[Wendy’s] predicament is so interesting… does credit to both the author and her readers… in this informative adventure.

School Library Journal

09/01/2014
Gr 4–6—Fifteen-year-old Wendy Dekker's life has drastically changed. Just a few months ago, she was Wendy Taylor from New York living with her mom, dad, and friends in America. But after being kidnapped by her Aunt Adrie, who turns out to be her mother, not to mention a Nazi spy and a German, Wendy's life is transformed. Since crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of World War II, Wendy is now living in Germany. She is expected to speak German and forget about her time in America. Her mother wants them to be together, believe in the same cause, and for Wendy to become the "perfect German daughter." Her mother has a strict list of rules for her new home. One of them is to stay away from the top shelf of books in the library—but it's in those books that Wendy begins to discover who she really is. As the unthinkable is happening all around her, Wendy learns more about what the German government is doing and plans her escape. Harlow creates another beautiful and touching story that captures what it was like during 1942 in Berlin, Germany. By introducing German words, songs and popular phrases, reader are transported back in time and surrounded by war. Harlow does an excellent job of weaving in true historical facts with fiction. This book is a stand-alone companion to Shadows on the Sea (S. & S., 2013).—Paige Bentley-Flannery, Deschutes Public Library, Bend, OR

Kirkus Reviews

2014-09-14
As World War II rages, a naïve almost-15-year-old American girl is brought to Berlin by her German spy mother; there, she's expected to be a perfect Deutsches Mädchen (German girl) and a loyal Nazi. Harlow's exciting historical novel begins with a bang as readers learn that Wendy Taylor, a character from Shadows on the Sea (2003), is really Wendy Dekker, the daughter of the woman she grew up thinking was her beloved Aunt Adrie. In a plot that neatly weaves historical facts with killer suspense, Wendy, now essentially a captive of her rabidly fanatical fan-of-the-Führer mother, must learn German and volunteer in a Lebensborn nursery, a eugenics program created by Himmler to create perfect blue-eyed, blond German citizens. There, her world perspective is enlarged by Jehovah's Witness Joanna, a Bibelforscher who is being re-educated, as her religious sect will not fight for or worship Hitler. But Wendy is not as isolated as she thinks; she's being watched over by Herr Strohkirch, a friend of her real father, and his blind grandson, Barret. They feed her information, counsel her on blending in and eventually help her to plot her escape. The final portion of the novel consists of Wendy's harrowing journey—a nail-biting will-she-or-won't-she flight from Germany to the relative safety of neutral Sweden. A stimulating blend of suspense and history. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID: 2940171206178
Publisher: Ray Perreault
Publication date: 11/15/2019
Edition description: Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

The Watcher


  • The hot July sun crept through the open window by the bed, waking me from another crazy dream. I turned the pillow to the cool side, and closed my eyes, hoping to sleep again.

    But bits and pieces of the past week flickered in my brain, nagging at me. I clamped the pillow over my head, not wanting to wake up. Not wanting to remember.

    When Aunt Adrie and I arrived here last night, I was too tired to change or bathe. So I slept in the same clothes I’d worn for days. It was a dream . . . wasn’t it? I kicked aside the quilt and looked down at my crumpled clothes. No, it hadn’t been a dream.

    I nervously twisted the ruby ring on my finger and everything flashed back rapidly—madly. Aunt Adrie gave me the ring a few days ago—when she told me the incredible truth: she was not my aunt at all. She was my mother and I was Wendy Dekker. I was not Wendy Taylor from New York State, even though I had thought I was all my life.

    I looked down at the gold ring and its deep red stone—a rare pigeon-blood ruby. In the morning sun and shifting shadows of the tree outside my window, the ruby appeared to throb like the beating heart of a frightened bird—only I was the frightened bird.

    Adrie had never asked me if I wanted to run away with her. I hadn’t been given a choice, but I did want to be with Adrie. I loved her, and I would go wherever she asked me.

    However, the next thing I knew, we were deep in the Atlantic Ocean, in the middle of World War II, with bombs exploding around us.

    Now, here I was in this big bedroom in this strange house that Adrie said was “where I belonged.” The bedroom was beautiful with Oriental rugs, high ornate ceilings, and dark mahogany furniture. It wasn’t a bit like my little bedroom back in Derry, New York.

    Suddenly my eyes filled up with tears, and I wanted to go home.

    I was wiping my eyes when the door burst open and Adrie came in. “I’ve been waiting for you to come to breakfast.” She came closer, peering at my face. “What’s this? Have you been crying?”

    “Um, oh, just a little . . . homesick, I guess.” I reached for another tissue on the nightstand and hoped she would understand and take me in her arms and comfort me. Instead she threw her hands up in astonishment. “Homesick? You are home! This room, this entire house has been waiting for you since you were born. And now, finally, you are home. So why on earth are you crying?”

    “I—I’m sorry, Adrie,” I stammered. “Everything is happening so . . . fast. I hardly know who I am . . . or where I am. . . .” I tried hard to hold back more tears.

    When she spoke again, her voice was icy. “Get this into your head once and for all. You are Wendy Dekker, my daughter. And this”—she stretched out her arms, encompassing the room—“this is your home.”

    I had no choice after all. It didn’t matter if I wanted to go back to the States. It didn’t matter if I were scared or homesick or lonesome. I opened my mouth to speak, but she silenced me with her hand, palm up, and came closer.

    “Forget the propaganda you’ve heard back in the States—lies about Germany, Nazis, Hitler, and this war.” Then, grabbing a hand mirror from the bedside table, she held it up to my face. “This is who you are,” Adrie repeated fiercely. “Wendy Dekker.”

    The girl in the mirror—with teary eyes and a runny nose—was a stranger to me.

    Adrie went on. “You are not American and you never were! You are a German girl—ein Deutsches Mädchen. Germany is your fatherland and Germany is where your loyalties lie.” She opened the curtains wide and pointed to the world outside my window. “And that city out there—Berlin, Germany—is where you—Wendy Dekker—live!”

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