LoveReading4Kids Says
A deeply moving and p;oignant tale of love, loss and sacrifice. Ellie is a teenage girl who learns to keep her spirits up while her brother fights in the Second World War. While everyone else seems to want to glorify the war putting blue stars in their windows for the men who’ve gone to serve and gold ones for those who have been killed, Ellie just wants her brother Jimmy to come home safely. Ellie’s hopes and fears, how she manages school and family and then the arrival of the terrible news she has so long feared is beautifully told. You won’t find a better novel to paint a picture of family life and woes during World War Two.
The inspiration for Jimmy's Stars:
Mary Ann Rodman was inspired to write Jimmy's Stars after reading the letters that her family members wrote to each other during World War 2. her main source, however, was the diary of her uncle, who evolved into the character of 'Jimmy'. This grounding ad Rodman's extensive research gives the book its richly authentic text. You'll find some images from th author's diary below.
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About Mary Ann Rodman
Born: Washington, D.C. on March 26 which was Academy Award night that year. Grace Kelly and William Holden won best actress and actor. If you want to know what year that was...go look it up!
Lived: Just about anywhere you can think of...Virginia, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Alabama, Georgia...even Bangkok, Thailand. But the two places I lived the longest as a child were Chicago, and Jackson, Mississippi.
Currently living: In Alpharetta, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta.
Education: a B.A. in Theater Arts from Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina; a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (go Vols!) and an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College
Jobs: I have been a community theater director and a youth coordinator for my church. But mostly I have always been some sort of children's librarian.
Pets: A spitzer (that's a half cocker/ half spitz) dog named Nilla, and a completely psychotic cat, Rosie. Yes, Rosie and Nilla get along fine.
Children: I have a nine-year-old daughter, Lily Nell, who wants to be an artist some day. (She took some of the pictures for this website) Since she is a competitive figure skater, I do a lot of writing in skating rinks!
Hobbies: Antiques (the kind that other people call "junk"), music (collecting CD's, not playing an instrument, unfortunately), cycling (when I can find a decent bike trail), photography
Music: Music is very important because I always write to music. My favorites (depending on what I am writing and in no particular order) are the Beatles, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, and Gregorian Chant (sung by women). I mostly don't listen to things with words while I am writing because they are distracting. When I am NOT writing, I also like Randy Newman, Alison Krause, Scott Joplin plus a whole bunch of country singer/songwriters (telling a whole story in three minutes of song is a neat trick...and hard to do!)
I like: October (the best things always happen then!), my beat-up purple convertible, eavesdropping in public (you can get great story ideas), adventure eating (always order the one thing on the menu you have never had), pinball machines (when I can find them) bookstores and music stores (duh!)
I really really dislike: boring people, closed-minded people, and salmon.
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