Alma Flor Ada

Jordi’s Star

RECOGNITION

Children’s Books of the Year 1997
Book­list starred review

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Jordi lives a soli­tary life on a bar­ren and rocky hill­side. One day, after a ter­ri­ble thun­der­storm, he finds a most unusual friend, a star reflected on a pond by his house. Inspired by his love for this unex­pected friend, he sets about find­ing ways to enhance the pond and its sur­round­ings. Before he knows it all of the moun­tain­side has changed… Mag­i­cally illus­trated by Susan Gaber this story has proven to be inspir­ing to chil­dren of all ages.

CD DESCRIPTION

This CD con­tains the read­ing of three of my favorite sto­ries: Jordi’s Star, The Mala­chite Palace, and The Uni­corn of the West. It was a very mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ence for me to record these books, to choose the music to accom­pany the read­ing, and to share after each record­ing the story of the cre­ation of each book.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This book was inspired by a land­scape where two dif­fer­ent moun­tains, one green, one dry faced each other. In real­ity it is the sum of my beliefs: beauty is all around us, if only we pause to see it. And love is the strongest energy. As we love we are trans­formed, as we love the world can be trans­formed. I chose the name Jordi for the char­ac­ter in recog­ni­tion of a beau­ti­ful tra­di­tion. In Cat­alo­nia, to cel­e­brate Saint Jordi’s feast day, April 23, friends greet each other with a rose and a book.

The best acco­lade that I could have been received for this book was granted me a very short time ago when a mother brought his son, Jordi, and asked me to auto­graph a book for him. She said she had heard the name only once before, but when she saw it in this book she chose it for her son. I hope he will always be a lover of roses and of books and a good friend to many!

REVIEWS

Pub­lish­ers Weekly

Gaber’s (Bit by Bit) radi­ant, clear-toned paint­ings give a quiet lumi­nes­cence to this story of a soli­tary shep­herd who lives with his flock among dry and dusty hills. One day, after a heavy rain, Jordi finds a small pond has formed near his house. Bereft of human com­pan­ion­ship, Jordi befriends a star that is reflected in the water each night. To please it, he plants flow­ers and fruit trees, and these actions bring him into touch with the blos­som­ing moun­tain­side and with his neigh­bors in the nearby vil­lage. Ada (My Name Is Maria Isabel) uses matter-of-fact lan­guage to take the strange­ness out of Jordi’s imag­i­nary rela­tion­ship; he does not ask the star about the nature of the cosmos-he asks her if she slept well and chats to her about the beauty of the foliage. The hero’s plump, bearded face, almost blank at first, gains rosy good cheer as the story pro­gresses. The gen­tly humor­ous illus­tra­tions make the tale of Jordi’s spir­i­tual growth shine with joy. Ages 4–8.

School Library Journal

Pre-School–Grade 3: A soli­tary shep­herd finds a spe­cial kind of magic. On a hill­side stripped bare by wood­cut­ters, Jordi tends his goats. Hop­ing to save a trip to the river, he digs a hole in the ground, but the would-be well remains dry. An intense rain­storm fills the hole, cre­at­ing a pool that mir­rors the night sky. Gaz­ing at its reflec­tion, Jordi truly believes that a star has fallen into the pool. Over­come with hap­pi­ness, he attempts to make his new friend com­fort­able, grad­u­ally bring­ing rocks, flow­ers, and other gifts from nature. As the years pass, the now-lush hill­side flour­ishes and both Jordi and his star shine with con­tent­ment. Writ­ten with strong emo­tion and a sense of won­der, this story has the tone and res­o­nance of a folk­tale. Because Jordi is pre­sented with dig­nity and sim­ple wis­dom, his belief in the star does not seem fool­ish, but rather an act of faith pow­er­ful enough to change his life. Done with acrylics on coquille board, Gaber’s paint­ings are pleas­ing. Jordi is the only splash of color against a bar­ren back­ground; his bearded, square-jawed face is painted with deep emo­tion as, touched by starlight, he smiles in his sleep, or gazes lov­ingly into the pool. Land­scape scenes are var­ied with close-up pic­tures, and changes in the per­spec­tive add detail and depth to the illus­tra­tions. A mov­ing, beau­ti­fully told story. –Joy Fleish­hacker, School Library Journal

Book­list

Ages 4–8: Jordi lives a dif­fi­cult, lonely life on a rocky hill, tend­ing a herd of goats. The ter­rain is bleak, and even get­ting water is dif­fi­cult. When the hole he digs to try to open a well fills with water dur­ing a thun­der­storm, Jordi’s life is for­ever altered. That night he sees a star shin­ing in the pool, and he gazes on it enrap­tured. He is cer­tain the star has gone to sleep when it dis­ap­pears from the pool the next day, and sure enough, that night the star reap­pears. Feel­ing an urge to nur­ture his new friend, he begins bring­ing it things–large rocks, which he puts together with soft moss; shiny quartz peb­bles, which he tosses into the bot­tom of the pool; and “some tiny blue flow­ers he had never noticed before.” Day by day, he brings more gifts to the star, grad­u­ally trans­form­ing his land­scape and him­self: “Jordi could not under­stand how life had once seemed so sad and lonely to him, filled as it was with so many beau­ti­ful things to dis­cover.” This touch­ing, lyri­cally told story is given sub­stance by Gaber’s earthy illus­tra­tions, which show Jordi as a poignantly real man, his broad face and large hands in sharp con­trast to the del­i­cate flow­ers and the twin­kling star. The book is appro­pri­ate for any picture-book col­lec­tion, but one par­tic­u­lar illus­tra­tion, which shows Jordi sleep­ing as starlight shin­ing in the win­dow illu­mi­nates a cross and an icon, makes this an espe­cially fine choice for church and parochial school libraries. –Susan Dove Lempke.

The Read­ing Teacher

“[…] Acrylic paint­ings drawn on coquille board by Susan Gaber con­vey the story’s beau­ti­ful spirit. Alex, age 11, reflected: ‘We can see how some­thing so small could bring a man so much joy’.” (The Read­ing Teacher. Octo­ber, 1997)

READERS’ RESPONSES

If you have enjoyed read­ing or shar­ing this book, I would very much like to hear from you. Please click here to send your comments.