Fiction Review

Starlight, Starbright
by Barbara Elliott Carpenter
ISBN-10: 1410716864
Review by Heather Froeschl

Growing up in the forties and fifties was in some ways very different than going through life in subsequent decades, but several things remain the same. How a child feels when their family makes a move and starts a fresh life is universal in time and place. New friends are made and your entire world is completely changed. The process of adjusting and exploring a new environment, while growing up, is what "Starlight, Starbright" is all about.

Sissy comes of age before our eyes under the guidance of her parents and in the companionship of her brother and sister, the neighborhood widows, a trash lady and two very different grandfathers. Her normal, every day escapades range from discovering what it is like to use the indoor bathrooms at her new school to understanding who Santa Claus is; from squinting at fairies hidden in the roots of a tree to spying a princess in the eyes of a forgotten woman.

Sissy develops into a young lady with dreams and desires and begins to understand that life is sometimes not fair and often unkind. The widows share stories of truth-based gossip and Sissy comes to know why male statues wear fig leaves. In her early teens she finds her first love, experiments with red lipstick and flusters from her first kiss. Along the way, she is true to her friends and close to her family.

Barbara Elliott Carpenter offers a look back at the not so distant past and opens a window to what growing up in the forties and fifties was like. Many things are different now, but many still remain the same. Children have lessons to learn and life to explore and those are universal moments. Sissy is a character so real that you will feel you too grew up with her. The descriptive settings in the book are as vivid as your own memories and the stories shared are much like those that are passed down in families from every corner of the earth.

"Starlight, Starbright" will keep you turning pages until you are through and then leave you with satisfaction that you've just shared something very special.