Synopses & Reviews
Holly Starcross feels alone in the world. Years ago she'd been wrenched from her familiar, comforting home to a new one with her cold, TV-star mother, friendly, producer stepfather, and, eventually, rambunctious half-siblings. Ever since, she's been haunted by sadness, by dreams, by vague memories of her father and of belonging.
Recently she's developed a new friend on the Internet -- someone named Zed, who knows how to speak to Holly's secret, inner self. And a mysterious stranger in an old, battered car is stalking her. Everyone at school is frightened by this prowler. A special meeting is called, the police have been informed, escorts to the buses have been arranged.
Holly is both fascinated by the stranger and scared. She wants to meet him. She doesn't want to. Are he and Zed somehow connected? Could he -- dare she think it -- be her father? And if she meets him, talks to him, will she find herself or lose herself?
Synopsis
Fourteen-year-old Holly Starcross knows two lives: six years with Dad and Mum and the animals in the country, then eight years with Mum, her new producer husband, and their children in the city. One life is a faded dream, the other a strained reality. Holly Starcross seems destined to never be truly happy, just as her last name implies. But starcrossed can also mean heaven sent, like her secret ambition to play the cello, like an anonymous (and wise) e-mail friend, perhaps even like the stranger who keeps following Holly. Who is he? A dangerous stalker . . . or her long absent father? Maybe happiness is in the stars, but first Holly must make some choices wrenching choices. This is touching, thoughtful, and introspective coming-of-age fiction that hits home and heart.
About the Author
Berlie Doherty is the author of numerous books for children and young adults. She has won the prestigious Carnegie Medal twice -- for G
ranny Was a Buffer Girl and for
Dear Nobody -- and in 1994
Willa and Old Miss Annie was highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. Ms. Doherty began writing tales even before she went to school and at age eight was earning boxes of chocolates and boxes of paints from the local newspapers for her stories and poems. She lives in England.