Book Review: Jimmy's Stars

This is Day 2 for me on the Jimmy's Stars book tour. My Day 1 post discusses a bit about the author, Mary Ann Rodman, and how much my daughter and I loved this novel about a working-class community during WWII.

Today my daughter was filling out a "My Favorite...." chart for the start of our school year. Her favorite book? Jimmy's Stars. What makes this novel a favorite for her, a typical nearly 11-year-old girl?

1. The main character, Ellie, is an authentic "every girl." She has strengths and weaknesses. She struggles, she cries, and she has small victories. Although she is a 1940s girl, her character transcends time, and a girl of 2008 can relate to her.
2. Rodman makes the setting somehow familiar, yet she liberally scatters unique war-era traditions/concepts and subtly explains them: rationing, phrases like "for the duration," the explosion of women in the workforce, the fear of the telegram, the hatred of Hitler, the strong belief that soldiers were heroes. In other words, today's readers are provided with a clear explanation of how life was then, but without it sounding like a history lesson.
3. Ellie and her family are not the perfect all-American family like the Brady Bunch. They all fight, the parents are tired, and they have to eat salmon pea-wiggle. But there is an abundance of love, evident in small gestures and in their pulling together.
4. The book is sad, but Ellie is strong. There is closure without necessarily a happy ending.
5. Rodman has a knack for writing dialog that is true. There's no artificial, excessive speech—just real stuff.

We loved Jimmy's Stars. Below is a list of other stops on the blog tour. I particularly enjoy the two-part interview with Mary Ann Rodman over at Maw Books. Tomorrow I'll talk about other WWII literature that would make good companion pieces for Jimmy's Stars.


1 Charger, A Childhood of Dreams, A Christian Worldview of Fiction
A Mom Speaks, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Book Review Maniac, By the Book Reviews, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, Home School Buzz, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Maw Books, The Friendly Book Nook, The Hidden Side of a Leaf

Book Tour: Jimmy's Stars by Mary Ann Rodman

"The two people Ellie McKelvey hated most were Adolf Hitler and Victoria Gandeck. Hitler lived in Germany, but Victoria was just across the alley. And right now, Ellie hated Victoria more."

For the next few days I'll be featuring Jimmy's Stars as part of Mary Ann Rodman's book tour. This tour is sponsored by Kids Book Buzz, a blog devoted to promoting quality children's literature.

My 10-year-old daughter and I have been reading this book together in the evenings for a couple of weeks now. According to her, this is "one of the best best books ever." (This is a child who has been getting a daily dose of classic read-alouds since birth; in other words, we've read a lot of books together.) I have been reading aloud to her since I am the one actually writing the review, but she couldn't resist reading ahead a couple of chapters on her own most nights.

The book is targeted to the 9-12 year old audience. The central character is 11-year-old Ellie McKelvey, an average girl from a blue-collar family. The setting: working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh in September 1943. The central conflict: the affects of World War 2 on Ellie, her family, friends, and the community, shown primarily through Ellie as she tries to deal with her beloved brother, Jimmy, being off at war.

Author Mary Ann Rodman’s debut novel, Yankee Girl, was chosen as a VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers and an NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. My daughter and I will be checking this one out together soon! Rodman's My Best Friend is for younger readers, as are her upcoming First Grade Stinks and Surprise Soup.

We still have 2 more chapters to read in Jimmy's Stars, so I'll post my actual review of the book tomorrow. Suffice it to say: my daughter and I both loved it. More stops on the book tour are listed below:

01 Charger, A Childhood of Dreams, A Christian Worldview of Fiction
A Mom Speaks, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Book Review Maniac, By the Book Reviews, Dolce Bellezza, Fireside Musings, Home School Buzz, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Small World Reads, The Friendly Book Nook, The Hidden Side of a Leaf