• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7

A story of two kids trying to save the world they know and heal the families they have.

It’s the summer of 2003 and thirteen-year-old amateur astronomer Noah Cooper has just moved to Queensport, a small town with a vast sky full of stars. There he meets Tara Dhillon, a lonely girl and aspiring filmmaker. When the two team up to produce an astronomy movie and enter a film contest, they discover a secret plan to turn their rural hamlet into a huge subdivision.

Noah and Tara must use their unique skills to identify the culprits who plan on paving over the historic county — and try to save the infinite beauty of the stars. As if that’s not enough to have at stake, Noah needs to win the prize money to buy a new telescope for his unemployed father — an ex-astronomer who’s almost given up on the stars, as well as life on earth.

Touching on themes of activism, environmental anxiety and mental health, A Bucket of Stars will have readers cheering for Noah, a boy whose head is in the stars, and Tara, a girl who lives in a world of digital images — and their special bond that just might mend the world around them.

Suri Rosen's profile page

• Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children's Book Centre
• Short-listed, Diamond Willow Award (Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice)
• Short-listed, OLA Red Maple Award, Fiction
• Short-listed, IODE Canada Violet Downey Award