Stella by Starlight is a work of youth lit by Sharon M Draper, who also wrote Out of My Mind (now a Disney+ movie). Draper has a knack for writing from the perspective of young girls on the outside. In Out of My Mind, the main character has a disability that affects her mobility and her ability to speak, but it doesn’t stop her from pushing forward for herself and her community. In Stella by Starlight, Stella is a Black 5th grader in rural 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, a lumber mill town where Blacks and whites are sharply segregated from each other. The story opens with Stella and her younger brother witnessing a Klan meeting at night, setting the mood for the novel: a time of suppression and violence against Black voices and bodies, where Stella and her community have to protect each other and decide what is worth fighting for.
Stella by Starlight covers a period lasting several months in the fall and winter of 1932. Draper writes that the inspiration for this novel was her own grandmother’s journals from her childhood, and so the story reads a bit like a series of episodes. As mentioned, the novel opens with Stella witnessing a clandestine Klan meeting near the pond by their house. The Klan is becoming more active in anticipation of the upcoming election, where FDR is expected to win. One of the things we see the Klan do in this story is try to suppress Black votes. Draper’s descriptions of the hoops Black men had to jump through just to register to vote (paying fees, taking a test — stuff whites did not have to endure) will make the reader angry, but even worse is the threat of physical violence against the men, like Stella’s father, who persevere and stand firm for their rights. A real act of violence does happen, and while it frightens the Black community of Bumblebee, it also serves as a catalyst to bring them together in solidarity.
The stark contrast between the lives of Black people and whites in this small town is shown in everyday life. Stella, her brother Jojo, and the neighborhood kids go to the Black school, which is in a small poorly heated shack. It is a one room schoolroom, so all grades are together and taught by the same teacher. Any books they have are the used ones discarded by the white school, which is a fine building with its own library and outdoor track. The Black community has its own doctor, who had to endure humiliations in order to attend med school. The white doctor is a hateful Klansman who refuses to help a Black person, even when they are at death’s door (something Stella will see firsthand).
In this divided, segregated world in the American South, Draper shows us how Stella and her peers persevere. Stella wants to write but struggles with the words and feels like a failure, even when the adults around her praise her creative mind. In order to clear her head and focus on writing well, she waits until after dark and goes outside to write under the stars. Her friend Tony, a gifted athlete, goes to the white school’s track at night so he can run freely on its cinder track. Yes, the Klan meets at night, but the evil they represent does not get to claim the night. If there is a unifying theme to this novel, it is Stella’s growth, her growing confidence. Despite the dangers around her, she finds her voice and uncovers talents she did not know she possessed.
This is a good novel to read for Black History Month, especially for grade schoolers. They will get a sense of the real discrimination and physical danger that Black people in the US have faced for generations. They will see some white allies, too, and maybe see how white people have sometimes succeeded and often failed to stand up to racism.
