Happy Wednesday, everyone! We’re halfway through another week and I can think of no better way to celebrate than with another beautiful cover reveal here on Pop! Goes The Reader! Today, I’m thrilled to have partnered with Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo to reveal the cover of her sophomore middle grade novel, A Galaxy of Sea Stars, which will be coming to a book store and library near you February 4th 2020 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)! I think the cover art by Rich Deas is absolutely breathtaking and I’m so honoured to be able to share it on the blog today. Please read on to learn more about A Galaxy of Sea Stars, including a note from the author and an opportunity for one lucky reader to win an advance reader copy of the novel!
About Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo
Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo is the author of Ruby in the Sky, which earned two starred reviews and which Booklist called “quietly magical.” She is also a volunteer with IRIS-Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (irisct.org) in New Haven, Connecticut. She lives in Ellington, Connecticut, with her family.
Digging deep to find strength and courage is a recurrent theme in my books and A Galaxy of Sea Stars continues to carry this refrain. As a child, I grew up with the stories told by my immigrant grandparents who, even as adults, were continuously trying to make sense of a world in which they were often judged by their accents before their abilities. Perhaps, this history is what that led me to IRIS – Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services in New Haven, CT, where I’ve had the great joy in working with refugee youth. It is from their voices that A Galaxy of Sea Stars was born.
In Galaxy, the main character Izzy fears change. It is only when she meets Sitara, a refugee from Afghanistan, that she learns what true courage is. In writing Galaxy, I worked with a group of young refugee women from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. These young women read several versions of Galaxy as paid cultural consultants. When I asked them, “If you could go back to when you first arrived in the United States, what is one thing you would want to say to your peers at school?”, their answer was as simple as it was powerful: “Be kind. You don’t know what other people have gone through.” In Galaxy, it is my intent to amplify their already strong voices and help deliver their already powerful message.
I hope that readers will see themselves in Izzy and Sitara and realize, as they do, that we are all more alike than we are different.
Cover art by Rich Deas
Title A Galaxy of Sea Stars
Author Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo
Intended Target Audience Middle Grade
Publication Date February 4th 2020 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● The Book Depository
Sometimes, the truth isn’t easy to see. Sometimes you have to look below the surface to find it.
Eleven-year-old Izzy feels as though her whole world is shifting, and she doesn’t like it. She wants her dad to act like he did before he was deployed to Afghanistan. She wants her mom to live with them at the marina where they’ve moved, instead of spending all her time on Block Island. Most of all, she wants Piper, Zelda, and herself — the Sea Stars — to stay best friends, as they start sixth grade in a new school.
Everything changes when Izzy’s father invites his former interpreter’s family, including eleven-year-old Sitara, to move into the marina’s upstairs apartment. Izzy doesn’t know what to make of Sitara, with her hijab and refusal to eat cafeteria food, and her presence disrupts the Sea Stars. But in Sitara, Izzy finds someone brave, someone daring, someone who isn’t as afraid as Izzy is to use her voice and speak up for herself. As Izzy and Sitara grow closer, Izzy must make a choice: stay in her comfort zone and risk betraying her new friend, or speak up and lose the Sea Stars forever.
A Galaxy of Sea Stars is the second novel from Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo, and a heartwarming story about family, loyalty, and the hard choices we face in the name of friendship.
As an extra, exciting bonus, Jeanne has been kind enough to offer one lucky reader the opportunity to win an advance reader copy of A Galaxy of Sea Stars! One winner will be chosen at random at the conclusion of the giveaway and the prize will be distributed by Jeanne when ARCs become available. Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter!
