The Wide Starlight

Gr 7 Up–Sixteen-year-old Eline Davis lives on Cape Cod with her American father. When she was little, they and her Norwegian mother, Silje, lived in Svalbard. When Eli was six, Silje took her to a glacier and whistled down the Northern Lights to take both of them away, but only her mother disappeared. Eli’s felt broken ever since. Then Eli receives a mysterious letter written in Norwegian saying that Silje is close and to call her. The Northern Lights also appear over Cape Cod, so Eli tries whistling her mother back. Eli’s afraid to believe it when Silje does return, not quite human. Eli starts seeing three mysterious girls in long cloaks with strange eyes skulking around. When meteorites begin falling and a pod of narwhals beach themselves on the cape, Eli realizes the longer her mother’s there, the more things keep breaking down. Silje attempts to fix it and disappears again, leaving Eli a message that says, “Find me where I left you.” Eli’s search takes her and her father back to Svalbard to a grandmother Eli hated and the magical stories Silje used to tell Eli. This mesmerizing and sometimes heartbreaking fantasy reveals the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters while exploring mental illness, loss, regret, guilt, and forgiveness. All characters are white.