New York
bestselling author Jessica Townsend says this book is ‘heart-twisting and
hopeful, bursting with big feelings and gentle magic. This is a special book
from a powerful, compassionate new voice in children’s literature, destined to
be read and loved for generations…’ Shirley Marr, the author, is a first-generation
Chinese-Australian who has published other YA and children’s novels and who
describes herself as having a Western mind and an Eastern heart.
In A Glasshouse
of Stars, told in second person, present tense, Meixing Lim and her family
have arrived in a new house in a new land, inherited from the late First Uncle.
The small girl is overwhelmed by the vastness of the house which she calls ‘Big
Scary.’ She is embarrassed by the second-hand shoes given to her by kind
neighbours, has trouble understanding the language of her new world, and with
fitting in and making new friends. Her solace is a glasshouse in the garden
that holds the sun and the moon, and secrets of her memory and imagination.
When tragedy
strikes and Ma Ma refuses to face the world, Meixing finds herself trapped within
the shrinking walls of Big Scary. The new home is supposed to be a blessing,
but instead it is a heart-breaking experience for Meixing. Surviving will take
all the resilience and inner belief of this brave girl to turn the family’s
world around.
The book is
based on the author’s experiences arriving in mainland Australia from Christmas
Island as a seven-year-old who was faced with and had to overcome culture
shock.
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