A vibrant biography uniquely told through both poetry and prose, Star Child details the incredible life of renowned science-fiction writer Octavia E. Butler in the way only Ibi Zoboi can.
A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book
From the New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist, a biography in verse and prose of science fiction visionary Octavia Butler, author of Parable of the Sower and Kindred.
Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight readers fifteen years after her death.
Ibi Zoboi was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her YA novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist and and her debut middle grade novel, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, was a New York Times bestseller. She is the author of Pride, a contemporary YA remix of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and editor of the anthology, Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America. Her most recent bestseller, Punching the Air, is a YA novel in verse, co-authored by prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. Her debut picture book, The People Remember, earned a Coretta Scott King Honor. Raised in New York City, Ibi now lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three children.
Read an Excerpt
Stardust
What if on the day she was born there was a quiet storm of tiny
shimmering dust that settled on tree leaves, on flower petals,
on rooftops, on the ground, on the shiny work shoes, and
glided through open windows to settle on hardwood
floors? Maybe there was a storm of stardust and
this was how Laurice James Butler and
Octavia Margaret Butler gave
birth to a baby girl named
Octavia Estelle Butler,
a star child.
Dawn
Laurice James Butler, who worked as a shoeshine man, and Octavia Margaret Butler, who worked as a live-in domestic servant, were married on May 17, 1931, in Los Angeles, California. On June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California, they gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Octavia Estelle Butler.
Laurice died on February 16, 1951, when Octavia was almost four years old. She knew very little about her father. She was raised by her mother and grandmother—two hardworking and God-fearing matriarchs. For a brief period, she also lived with her two uncles, each like a father to her.
Octavia Margaret Butler, her mother, was the greatest constant in her life. She was born in Louisiana in 1914 and lived on a sugarcane plantation before migrating with her family—and hundreds of thousands of other African Americans—to Southern California as part of the Great Migration that was reshaping cities in the North and West.
The American Library Association honors books, videos, and more with their Youth Media Awards, most notably the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King and Printz Book Awards. Representing outstanding children’s and young adult literature, these award winners and honor books are must-read stories and make excellent additions to home and classroom libraries. John Newbery Medal Randolph […]
