A Way to the Stars

Hans Christian Andersen Award winner David Almond conjures the imaginative bond between a father and son as they pool their resources to defeat gravity and realize a dream.

Joe is starstruck, determined to find his way up, up, up to the magical lights in the night sky. “In your dreams!” his pals say. But when Joe and his dad put their heads and hearts together, there’s no stopping them. Together they climb ladders, construct towers, and launch rockets in a tireless quest to reach the unreachable. Airy and playful, Gill Smith’s dynamic illustrations perfectly complement David Almond’s ebullient tale of sky-high courage—and the power of the imagination to pilot a dream—in a picture book adventure for stargazers and sidekicks of all ages.

David Almond is a beloved author of picture books, novels, and graphic novels for children, including The Dam, illustrated by Levi Pinfold; War Is Over, illustrated by David Litchfield; The Tale of Angelino Brown, illustrated by Alex T. Smith; My Dad’s a Birdman and The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon, both illustrated by Polly Dunbar; The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers; Brand New Boy, illustrated by Marta Altés; Skellig; Clay; Kit’s Wilderness; and many more. His awards include a Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Awards, an Eleanor Farjeon Award, a Michael L. Printz Award, and a Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international prize for children’s book authors. David Almond lives in England.

Gill Smith is the acclaimed illustrator of Maria’s Island by Victoria Hislop and Saving the Butterfly by Helen Cooper. She lives in England.