Jessica Walton (text) and Aśka (illustrator), Stars in their Eyes, Fremantle Press, September 2021, 216 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781760990718
Stars in their Eyes is a graphic novel about fourteen-year-old Maisie who has faced cancer and lost a limb to an amputation. Maisie is excited about going to her first Comic-Con, Fancon, to meet her favourite amputee actor.
Maisie’s mum is funny, embarrassing and Maisie’s biggest advocate in everything, including Maisie’s bisexuality. Their witty banter throughout the novel reveals their open and supportive relationship. She helps Maisie to feel ok about her emotional and physical needs when she begins to feel extremely overwhelmed in the fray of the crowded Fancon environment. When Maisie meets Ollie, a Fancon volunteer, Ollie immediately supports her to feel safe to express exactly who she is.
Aśka’s expressive black and white illustrations expand the emotional and physical details of the characters, in addition to being an ode to fandom and pop culture. There plenty of small illustrative details that celebrate the fanbase of a Comic-con
Jessica Walton is a Victorian-based author, who writes books that increase the positive representation of family diversity, gender identity and disability in books for children of all ages. Aśka is a Perth-based illustrator, science communicator and visual literacy educator. Teaching notes are available on the publisher’s website.
Stars in their Eyes is a very necessary story, representing the various ways we love each other and the diversity of the bodies we inhabit. As storytellers, Jessica Walton and Aśka invite us to see that it’s our daily interactions, and our ways of communicating with each other, that will create a more accessible future. We need more stories like Stars in their Eyes, and we need people of all ages reading these stories together.
Reviewed by Angela Brown
