Sparkling Together : Starbright and His Earthling Friends

Grade 2-5-These eight stories, written "as a means to nourish the self-esteem of the children," feature a friendly, humanlike extraterrestrial, Starbright, from Planet Om, whose spaceship lands near earthling children Rose and Sky. He invites the siblings to the Star Family Fest, and off they go. Starbright and his family are star-powered (a star glows from their shirts); earthlings are heart-powered. Cardboard characters, illustratively and textually, are paired with pedestrian story lines (school, friends, a new baby, moving, employment, grief) and share a similar format: the alien and the children meet in different stories and confront an issue (e.g., rescuing a bully, finding a job, etc.) predictably resolved by platitudes such as "love lives in everything" or "the love in your heart stays with you wherever you go." While gentle books to raise children's self-esteem are always in demand, intention supersedes quality here.