What I thought- This was a really well-written book! I enjoyed the uniqueness of the fact that Audrey and Aaron pretty much have super-powers, but the story just makes them out to be interesting people with great talents. It made it seem almost normal – almost. Ms. de los Santos and Mr. Teague set up a wonderful story with these two unique kids thrown into an environment that really challenges them. The setting is a great place for the adventure – the Texas “Desert” Plains. The kids must learn to get along with each other, and also survive the blazing sun and landscape. When a classmate disappears after getting into a fight with the counselor, the kids team together to get to the bottom of it. I like how they learn to work together despite having very different personalities. I enjoyed every second of it. However, I soon realized that Marisa de los Santos and David Teague had written a story that was more than just an adventure story. Told in alternating points-of-view, Aaron and Audrey are two thirteen-year-old students who don't quite fit into their respective schools. Aaron is an odd-man-out because his eidteic memory allows him to recite skills but without meaning, and Audrey has difficulty trusting people, because of her ability to figure out when a person is lying.

If you read the summary of the book above, you know that Aaron is a walking encyclopedia. Whatever he reads, he remembers it in his head. The only problem that he has is that he isn't very good at thinking outside of the box. He just remembers what he sees or what he reads. Synopsis- Aaron Archer is a living encyclopedia – he remembers every single thing he’s read/heard – word for word. This place is his family...and it's beautiful, but it's not easy. It stings. It's hard and dry. It's not like a garden or a beach. It's like a family that's hard to love, but you do it anyway...and the anyway is the whole point." de los Santos and Teague again make big philosophical questions approachable and meaningful, creating a poignant novel that grapples with the variety of struggles people face and the beauty of embracing life and friendship anyway.” (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)Spelling suggestions: If your guess closely matches one of the movies or stars that can be connected to your board, we show a little pop-up telling you what we think you meant, and you can then add it to your board. This is done using fuzzy string searching. We also don’t care about the word “the”, accent marks, punctuation, and so on. provide peer-support sessions which will be facilitated by Peer Supporters; local people volunteering their time, most of whom have themselves been through a loss.

Middle grade isn't a genre I read much of (which I am in the process of remedying) - so there is a small part of me that doesn't feel I am THE BEST person to take a recommendation from. However, having a preteen in the house, I can tell which books would be fun for kids to read and Connect the Stars is one of those books. Audrey, Aaron, Kate and Louis were enormously delightful and I had to laugh out loud at many occasion in this story. These kids are thrown together by happenstance during a wilderness camp in the Texan desert, and totally make the best of many bad situations.

His development from Louis the Scared to Louis the Brave is amazing. He thought way more of himself than ever and I loved it! HOW THE HELL DID HE SA- ahem. Okay, no spoilers.