Stardust by Neil Gaiman

After having a somewhat love/creepy relationship with Coraline by Neil Gaiman, I was particularly interested in this title when I picked it up at Books-a-Million. It is different from his other novels, being that it is written in an old-timey English language. It was published originally in 1997 as a comic book, and was later released in 1999 as a conventional novel by Harper Teen Publishers. It is primarily considered a part of the romance genre, with a little bit of romance thrown in as well. I would recommend this book to at least juniors and seniors in high school. There are some adult themes and some words of profanity involved in the telling of the story, but nothing too obscene.

The story takes place in the city of Wall, and we are first introduced to Dunstan Thorne. He travels past the huge wall that runs through his town into the land of Faerie, where there is a magical market held every nine years. There he meets an imprisoned princess and unexpectedly fathers a baby that is later delivered to his doorstep. The nameplate on the basket says Tristran Thorne.

Seventeen years later, in an effort to secure the love of the beautiful Victoria, he promises to bring her back a certain falling star.

In the meantime, we are introduced to three old witches who need the heart of a young star in order to regain their youth, and three princes are ordered by a dying king to retrieve a certain stone from the star in order to succeed their father for the throne. In other words: there are others who wish to get their hands on this star besides Tristran.

He sets off on an incredible journey and realizes that this star has the same form as a young woman. Together they travel through incredible circumstances, meet a unicorn, travel with pirates on their sky-ship, and escape the clutches of an evil queen. It is a story that takes you to places you can only imagine.

The pictures are from the movie that was adapted from the book and released Istarring Charlie Cox, Ben Barnes, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Claire Danes. It was released on August 10th, 2007, and has earned over $135,553,760 worldwide.