Publishers Weekly
★ 07/19/2021
Morales (Dreamers) writes a love song to the land that forms the border between the U.S. and Mexico. She begins not with the people who brave it but with finely executed, digitally enhanced portraits of the wild flora and fauna that live in the desert. A doe guards her newborn fawn as embroidered text reads, “Child, you are awake!” The voice continues, the doe licking her fawn: “You are ALIVE! You are a bright star/ inside our hearts.” When threats loom, “Te amo,” reads the text, as the mother touches her muzzle to her child’s, “breathe in, despacito,/ then gently breathe out./ Lie low.” In a charged moment, animals and insects confront a border wall, their pathways blocked and cacti upended. As animals circle to protect the young deer, reassuring it “you are not alone,” a visual shift links the fragility of the desert’s life to the vulnerability of people stuck on one side of the border—both are at the mercy of oppressive forces, and their fates are intertwined. Yet Morales holds out the hope of a beautiful world, discussed in a lyrically written afterword. Ages 4–8. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
"A newborn fawn awakens to a dangerous world in this sumptuously illustrated picture book set in the Sonoran Desert."—PEOPLE
"Caldecott honoree Yuyi Morales’s best book yet. . . . Bright Star, which was simultaneously published in an all-Spanish version called Lucero, does what very few picture books can do: captivate a child while moving the adult who is reading to her."—New York Times
"This book is beautiful to behold, and every spread is magically rendered with bright colors, embroidered text and the desert critters that live in the borderlands. Morales reminds her readers that all humans and life are important and that we can dream a better future into existence for all who live here."—Washington Post
★ "In English text that holds Spanish within it, Morales meditates on community, imagination, immigration, and the natural world, often pulling from current events and recent societal traumas. Thanks to some awe-inspiring moments and rather startling images, the fawn’s journey moves at a dreamy pace, inviting further rereads. . . . Utterly beautiful."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
★ "An effective picture book both for learning about the Sonoran Desert’s many layers and ecological diversity and for emphasizing for younger readers the dangers of harsh divisions. . . . With all the careful and lush attention to detail, this is a picture book worth coming back to over and again. Whether in English or Spanish, keep a space for it on the shelf."—Booklist, Starred Review
★ "Beauty gleams from the pages. . . . Morales shares her love for the borderlands, shows the pain the border wall inflicts, and presents an invitation to learn more."—School Library Journal, Starred Review
★ "Morales (Dreamers) writes a love song to the land that forms the border between the U.S. and Mexico. . . . A visual shift links the fragility of the desert's life to the vulnerability of people stuck on one side of the border—both are at the mercy of oppressive forces, and their fates are intertwined. Yet Morales holds out the hope of a beautiful world, discussed in a lyrically written afterword."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
★ "[A] sensitive and evocative picture book. . . ."—The Horn Book, Starred Review
★ "A powerful, radiant picture book. . . . Bright Star is a marvel and a masterpiece, both a lullaby and a cry for survival."—Shelf Awareness
"The encouraging prose and the symbolism are lovely. . . . Morales captures the flora and fauna of the Sonoran desert with tender fidelity, depicting a delicate Southwestern Eden teeming with life from peccaries to bats to flowering cactus and ruptured by the harshly looming wall. Touchable textures, including wool embroidery for some words, increase the fascination of the glowing scenes. . . ."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
School Library Journal
★ 09/01/2021
PreS-Gr 3—In an author's note, Morales states that she used "the most beautiful things I could find" to make this book: words in English and Spanish, drawings, paint, wool, and photographed textures. Beauty gleams from the pages in soft, sunrise pink, as a whitetail fawn wakes in a patch of desert plants and explores its environment with its mother. The text addresses a "Child," which may refer to the fawn or to a reader; observers will also notice hummingbirds (whose wings blur as they hover), tortoises, insects, and cacti. In a dramatic spread, the pink shifts from the color of a sunrise to that of a wound, as the fawn and other desert creatures confront the harsh vertical barrier of the border wall, topped with curls of barbed wire and surrounded by pieces of chopped-down cacti. Night falls as does rain; bats emerge and the desert teems with life. In a new dawn, the fawn curls among pink and yellow flowers; on the following page, a brown-skinned girl is in the fawn's place, peering over her shoulder, directly at readers. On the final spread, six people stand or sit, their gazes out and up, under the refrain, "You are a bright star inside our hearts," transforming the art into a message of love and hope that honors children everywhere, especially migrant children. VERDICT Morales shares her love for the borderlands, shows the pain the border wall inflicts, and presents an invitation to learn more. Recommended for all collections.—Jenny Arch, Lilly Lib., Florence, MA
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-07-14
Amid the borderlands, a whitetail fawn thrives and survives in Morales’ latest seed of hope.
“Child, you are awake!” A fawn gazes back at readers, curled up in the desert dirt alongside the cacti and blossoms. “You are alive!” It’s a summoning, a reckoning with the wonders—visible and not visible—of life. The opulent artwork thrums with blooms of orange, brown, and green, featuring vibrant images made of digitally altered drawings, photographs, yarn, wool, among other things. The fawn observes and prances, exploring underneath the warm desert sun. It’s a celebration. But: “Oh, no! What is that?” Faded gray spikes pierce the frame from behind. “Lie low. We want you safe.” The fawn’s left alone, crouched close to the earth as gray smoke suffocates the desert air. Soon, the fawn stands before a concrete wall crowned with barbed wire, bellowing among upturned cacti and other creatures unable to move ahead. “Let the world know what you feel!” In English text that holds Spanish within it, Morales meditates on community, imagination, immigration, and the natural world, often pulling from current events and recent societal traumas. Thanks to some awe-inspiring moments and rather startling images, the fawn’s journey moves at a dreamy pace, inviting further rereads. A powerful author’s note weaves in a visceral sense of urgency. Lucero, an all-Spanish version translated by Eida Del Risco, publishes simultaneously.
Utterly beautiful. (further resources) (Picture book. 4-8)
