Stella by Starlight

Sharon M. Draper presents “storytelling at its finest” (School Library Journal, starred review) in this New York Times bestselling Depression-era novel about a young girl who must learn to be brave in the face of violent prejudice when the Ku Klux Klan reappears in her segregated southern town.

Stella by Starlight follows the life of Stella, who lives in the segregated South—in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be precise. There are certain stores she can enter and others she cannot. Some people are quite pleasant, while others are decidedly not. To Stella, life is a balancing act, and it seems manageable. After all, the Klan hasn’t troubled them in years.

However, one late night, much later than she should be up, let alone outside, Stella and her little brother witness something they were never meant to see. It’s a sight that heralds change—unwelcome change by any measure. As Stella’s community and her world are thrown into turmoil, she makes the decision to fight back. Through her struggles, she learns that ashes don’t always mark an end.