How to Catch a Star

What’s it about?

The story.

There is a boy who loves stars. More than anything, he wants to catch one. He tries everything: waiting for a star to fall, jumping as high as he can, swimming out to where a star's reflection meets the water. Nothing works. He tries all day. As the sun sets and the sea turns gold, he notices something floating near the shore, a star, carried in on the tide. His star. Oliver Jeffers' first book introduced the boy and the spare, lyrical visual language that would define his picture books: wide skies, small figures, warm muted palettes, and a sense of the infinite seen through a child's eyes. The text is minimal and gently rhythmic, designed to be read slowly, with pauses. The underlying message, that persistence is rewarded, and that what we look for sometimes arrives in a form we didn't expect, lands without feeling didactic. A gift-quality book that works for bedtime, for celebration, or simply because it is beautiful. The beginning of one of picture books' great ongoing characters.