Starlight, Star Bright, I Hope to Get Out of This Camp Tonight...

I was pretty excited to be approved for my first NetGalley title the other day!

The Starlight Claim is the third ARC from Candlewick Press I’ve been lucky to come by recently, and I must say that I’m really enjoying their titles. Here is a fairly clean book (there’s a little bit of language, but much less than its present YA counterparts, if you’re monitoring that sort of thing) that’s full of excitement.

It starts with Nathaniel (Nate) Crow, who is still haunted by the disappearance of his friend, Dodge, after a family boating accident. He had been planning to make a trip back to the site (also their families’ camps) with third friend Paul, partly for closure, partly hoping (though it’s a long shot) that they’ll find the body. But when Paul gets grounded, Nate secretly makes the trip alone, though a major storm is on the way. When Nate reaches the camp, he finds it occupied by prison-escapees. And though one becomes an unlikely ally, secrets are exposed, and no one is sure who will make it home alive.

I thought this book was nicely paced. The action scenes are intense, and they’re broken up by Nate’s nightmares regarding Dodge and his reminiscing about past interactions with him. It gives him a little more emotional depth, rather than the reader only being thrust in the fight for his survival. I found him to be a sympathetic character and an empathetic one as well: what he chooses when dealing with the escapees threatening his life is pretty remarkable.

Other characters added to the overall tone. The parents (there were two, they were alive and present. This sounds random, but in some circles, there has been discussion why there is such a bleak parent picture in current YA literature) were likable and the criminal element was sufficiently menacing for this age (though when the worst of the lot spoke, he sounded an awful lot like a stereotypical apologetic Canadian!)

I’d definitely recommend this (and I would also check out more books by Wynne-Jones) book, especially for those seeking younger YA or “boy” books.

Bonus points: I cannot fault a book for adding mention of Larry Bird.

Thank you to NetGalley and author Tim Wynne-Jones for providing me with this copy to review.

From his GoodReads profile, "Tim Wynne-Jones is an English–Canadian author of children's literature, including picture books and novels for children and young adults, novels for adults, radio dramas, songs for the CBC/Jim Henson production Fraggle Rock, as well as a children's musical and an opera libretto."

#boybooks #NetGalley #survival