Synopsis: Meixing Lim and her family have arrived in the New Land to begin a New Life. Everything is scary and different. Their ever-changing house is confusing and she finds it hard to understand the other children at school. Yet in her magical glasshouse, with a strange black and white cat, Meixing finds a place to dream.
But then Meixing’s life comes crashing down in unimaginable ways. Only her two new and unexpected friends can help. By being brave together, they will learn how to make the stars shine brighter.
A Glasshouse of Stars is based on the author’s childhood and beautifully illustrates the importance of friendship, kindness and love.
Release Date: 19th June 2021
Genres: Middle Grade, Own Voices, Immigration, Magic/Imagination, Diversity, Memoir
Pages: 272
Thank you so much to Usborne Publishing And Netgalley for the earc to read and review.
Review: Meixing is such a sweet little girl who tells her story as though she is telling it to herself. When her life changes and more changes follow her, she has to find her own way to cope with the strange new world and changes surrounding her. She goes through so much in such a small space of time and has to fine one magical way to deal with everything.
I found this really hard to get into, I really struggled with this book. It sounded really sweet and magical, I thought I’d enjoy it so much but unfortunately that just wasn’t the case for me. That doesn’t mean to say others won’t love and enjoy this I’m actually expecting it be a very much enjoyed story.
It is creatively written in second person, it has magic that she creates to deal with everything she is going through, within her beautiful glasshouse of stars. It tells a story that will be familiar to a lot of immigrant children that have gone through the struggles of language barriers, scenery changes and family pressures to fit in and do a perfect job at everything they do.
I really didn’t like the adults in this book not even a little bit, they just didn’t sit well with me personally, especially her dad, he was a horrible and very harsh man, he expected and demanded so much from such a small child who had her life just turned upside down and didn’t even know the language yet, didn’t know pretty much anything from this scary new land but he demanded she be a perfect student.
This story was written well was very vivid and had so much sadness within it. It told an interesting story and I’m sad that personally I couldn’t get into it or enjoy it fully. As I said though I believe this would be a great and enjoyed book for other readers, it’s actually got a good educational aspect as it can help teach about immigrated students and how hard life is for them to adjust so could be a good one to teach with in schools.
About Author: Shirley Marr is a first generation Chinese-Australian living in sunny Perth and an author of Young Adult and children’s fiction. Her titles are A Glasshouse of Stars, Little Jiang, Preloved and Fury.
It was while she was working on a very dry Accounting PhD that she realised she’d rather be writing down her dark, twisted daydreams instead. She is still a Bespectacled Accountant by day and a Masked Writer at night.
Shirley describes herself as having a Western Mind and an Eastern Heart and writes in the middle where both collide. She takes milk and sugar with her tea much to the dismay of her oolong drinking friends and eats chicken feet much to the disgust of her Aussie friends.
Her passion is to distil her cultural heritage in dark and unusual ways through the lens of resilient young women and her soft spot is interpreting the concept of a “Suburban Princess”.
She is the only person she knows who has ever been kicked out of a bookstore for disruptive behaviour.
She is represented by Gemma Cooper from The Bent Agency
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