Wandering star by Natalie Jane Prior
Illus. by Stephen Michael King. Scholastic, 2019. ISBN:
9781760663339.
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Themes: Horses. Adventure. Friendship. The
girl and her horse, Wandering Star, are inseparable. They do
everything together, from roaming the hills near home, to putting
the sheep away when a fox appears. They join in with the other
animals, regardless of the weather doing circus tricks. But they
both love the sea, and Wandering Star takes her there to see the
dolphins and seagulls. And she dreams. The girl finds a locket in
the rock pool, and is reminded of the old story of a Faery Queen
losing her locket during a perilous storm. They ride past the wolves
and into a cave where the glowworms light their way to the Queen and
they restore the locket to her, receiving a reward.
Told in gently rhyming lines, the rhyming scheme will have readers
predicting the next word, and wondering at the way the lines rhyme,
as each stanza has an AABCCB structure which is wonderful to read
aloud, forcing the reader to think ahead and not fall into the trap
of expecting a simpler rhyming scheme. This poetic form is a breath
of fresh air compared with many much simpler poetic forms being
offered recently. Audiences will appreciate the difference and in a
supportive classroom, try the rhyming scheme for themselves.
The dream sequence of the young girl and her horse visiting the
Faery Queen is beautifully told, and the illustrations by Stephen
Michael King add to the mystery and other worldliness of the book.
The horse, Wandering Star, will appeal to all readers who will be
entranced with the shapes it makes across the pages, each image
quite different from the one before.
Using watercolour, ink and pencil, King has created a wondrous
background to this lovely story and I can hear the sighs of
contentment from its readers, especially when they ride home
together, stopping on the hill to look at their little house waiting
for them.
Fran Knight