When blueberry season arrives in Down East, so do migrant workers and their families. For these seasonal workers, summer days are spent working in blueberry fields. When the season ends, they move on to another place and another job.
That’s the setting for a new book by Newbery Honor-winner Cynthia Lord of Brunswick. “A Handful of Stars” was released in late May. It follows the story of Lily — that’s short for Tigerlily — and Salma, the daughter of migrant workers. The two meet after Lily’s dog, Lucky, which is old and losing his eyesight, runs into the blueberry fields one day, forcing Lily to chase him. Salma, working in the field, helps her capture the dog, and the pair soon strike up a friendship.
Together, they work on a project to raise money so Lily can get Lucky an operation that could save his eyesight. Meanwhile, Salma decides to enter the local Blueberry Queen pageant in hopes of winning and receiving a savings bond that would help her begin saving for college. It’s the first time a migrant worker has entered.
The moving story about friendship, love, loss and change is written for children in grades three through seven but will resonate with adults, too.
Lord says the idea for “A Handful of Stars” came from her visits to the Down East area.
“I’ve done quite a few school visits down in Washington County. I work with an organization called Island Readers and Writers,” Lord said. “I just love that area. It’s just beautiful.”
Island Readers and Writers is a nonprofit created in 2006 that works with children living on Maine’s coastal and inland islands by providing innovative reading programs that encourage engagement and excitement about reading.
She also visited a school in Florida, where she met children of migrant workers who were left behind with family and friends while their parents traveled for work, much like the migrant workers who pick blueberries Down East in the summer.
Lord said much research goes into a book like this.
“You want to get not just all the details right but the emotion of the experience right,” Lord said.
Lord, who lives in Brunswick, won the Newbery Honor Award, the Schneider Family Book Award and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award for her first book, “Rules.” She writes in a custom-built writing shed she purchased after “Rules” won the Newbery.
“Really, I think it’s the best money I’ve spent on my writing career. Just having that space makes quite a difference,” Lord said of the winterized space that houses her writing desk, rubber ducks and other mementos that remind her of her books.
Reaction to the book so far has been “really positive,” Lord said. Down East Magazine recently awarded “A Handful of Stars” a Best of Maine award for Best Kids Books.
“It’s been wonderful. We have a nice launch for it down in Milbridge,” Lord said. “It was just a wonderful party for it.”
“A Handful of Stars,” by Cynthia Lord, is available at bookshops throughout the state, including The Briar Patch on Central Street in Bangor and the Children’s Book Cellar on Main Street in Waterville.
Lord will be signing books and participating in other festivities at the Children’s Book Festival by the Sea in Camden on Aug. 22.