The Stars at Oktober Bend

The Stars at Oktober Bend

Authors

Glenda Millard

Publisher

Old Barn Books

Publication Year

2016

ISBN

9781910646151

Pages

266 pages

Genre

realism

Format

novel

Item Type

Fiction

Annotation

Alice is fifteen, with hair as red as fire and skin as pale as bone. Something inside Alice is broken: she remembers words but struggles to speak them. Still, Alice knows words are for sharing, so she pins them to posters in tucked-away places: railway waiting rooms, fish-and-chip shops, quiet corners. Manny is sixteen, with a scar from shoulder to elbow. Something inside Manny is broken: he was once a child soldier, forced to do terrible, violent things. But in a new land with new people who will care for him, he spends time exploring on foot. And in his pocket, he carries a poem he scooped up. And he knows the words by heart. When Manny and Alice meet, their relationship brings the beginning of love and healing.

Grade Level

6-8; 9-12

Lexile Measure

1190L

Diversity Topics

Family Relationships; Disability and Health; Family member death; Kinship care; Foster care; Neurological disorder; Mental illness; death of a parent; death; grief; loss; children living with relatives; grandmother raising grandchildren; foster teenager; foster parents; brain damage; traumatic brain injury; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Main Character

female teenager; male teenager

Race/Ethnicities

Black (Sierra Leonean) / White

Family Formation

grandmother; foster mother and father

Awards

Audie Award, 2019, Finalist, Young Adult
Carnegie Medal, 2017, Short List, Children's Book
Prime Minister's Literary Award, 2017, Short List, Young Adult Fiction
UKLA Children's Book Award, 2017, Long List, Ages (12-16)

Keywords

speech; war; child soldier; bullying; friendship; poetry; prison; grandparents; fragile

Diversity Impact

direct

The Stars at Oktober Bend

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