The Giver of Stars Book Review

Twinkle twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are, where you are, how I can get you, someone give me a star, all the stars. Welcome to Kyla's Reading Day!

Today we are talking about the book, The Giver of Stars. The book was written by Jojo Moyes. The genre of the book is fiction. The theme of the book is literature.

So this book was so great. I mean, I don't make it a habit to read books that are not great, right? But I do like to share reviews with you whether I absolutely love the book or I could have, you know, given or taken it. This one was really special to me because this book was a love story that was really slow in the making, and then it was all about books and libraries, which I'm absolutely obsessed with. I even got this book from the library. I love libraries, and I definitely enjoy buying books.

I've definitely spent a lot of money on books, but it's really cool just to get them from the library right and so this book was all about being the giver of stars, and that is you're giving away stars when you're giving away library books when you're traveling in the mountains; you're handing out books to people you're teaching them how to read you're sparking that imagination that sponge-like brain in a child.

You're teaching your mom recipes you're doing all this stuff right and so the plot of this book was in the 1800s. People were terrified of libraries and learning something new. People were terrified of the unknown, so the story of these young ladies being incredibly brave and sharing books was inspiring.

One of the quotes in the book that means so much to me is when someone is talking about Marjorie, and they say "You know her daddy's name travels before her."

So that quote is in reference to Marjorie, who is one of the first women who was working on the writing library, the writing horses going around from town to town to distribute the books. And Marjorie has this bad rap. She comes from a messy family. They got all kinds of drama and stuff going on, alcoholics, all this stuff. And so people don't really rock with her. They don't really associate with her. and what happens is someone is trying to explain who Marjorie is, and they're like oh you know her her daddy's name goes before her because her family is renowned okay in good ways, but mostly bad ways.

The quote meant a lot to me because I lost my father in 2021, and so my dad's name traveled before me. It gives me chills right it's like yeah people do not only know me they know my father and so they've heard about me because of my father or they know my family because of my last name and so now you know what I mean and so I remember when I got married in 2019 and I definitely knew that I wanted to change my name to my married last name which is Denanyoh however It was not lost on me that I was the only girl in my dad's and that I was going to have to change from my family name to my new married name. And what a big deal that was, right? There are a lot of people who don't change their name when they get married.

There's people who do. For whatever reason you want, whether you want to change your name, you don't want to change your name, you hyphenate, doesn't matter. but most people put some thought into it whether they decide to do it or not do it and I decided to take my new husband's name but it was not lost on me that I would no longer be using the family name that I came from right my father's name and so the quote that your daddy's name travels before you it just really really really hit me here in the heart because it's an absolute honor to have my daddy's name travel in front of me travel ahead of me right and I mean I still look just like him and I have all this stuff to remember him but that part really really really jumped out at me.

I get some comments on here. You guys are like you find the most minute little thing and it meant something, but I imagine that the author of the books is writing and every line means something to them and that might not be true and if it's not, don't tell me do not tell me but whether she heard their daddy's name travel before them, whether it's just something common that people used to say back then, no matter how Jojo Moyes found that sentence to put it in the book, even if she didn't think it would make an impact, I'm glad to know that it did make an impact and that it meant a lot to me. So, okay.

So when I reread The Giver of Stars, yes, very long book, a very interesting book, a very detailed book. I've read it twice, I'm always amazed by what I learned about Alice and I think it's absolutely fascinating. I remember reading Me Before You and then You After Me, and then I bought the third one, but I've never read it, so I'll have to do a review on that too.

All this to say that Jojo Moyes is a great writer. The Giver of Stars is a departure from what she's written before because her other books are really good as well, but this one is a historical literature book which is very different from the contemporary writing that she did in Me Before You.

Have you read The Giver of Stars? It's a great read and it's available in audiobook as well so. Let me know if you've read it. Let me know if you are planning to read it.

With my head in a book,

Kyla