Stella by Starlight

Set during the Great Depression in the segregated South, Stella by Starlight is a historical middle grade novel by award-winning author Sharon M. Draper. As the Ku Klux Klan exerts increasing influence over the residents of rural Bumblebee, North Carolina, 11-year-old Stella Mills must confront racism while navigating the challenges of school, family life, and friendship. First published in 2015, the novel won the Charlotte Huck Award, an honor for children’s fiction granted by the National Council of Teachers of English. This guide references the 2015 Atheneum Books for Young Readers edition.

Plot Summary

Late one night in 1932, 11-year-old African American Stella Mills and her eight-year-old brother JoJo see a local group of Ku Klux Klansmen burning a cross near their home. They run to alert their parents. After verifying the Klan activity for himself, Papa calls a meeting of their neighbors. Stella and classmate Tony Hawkins sit outside together while the men talk. They agree that any action against the KKK in their segregated town of Bumblebee will be almost impossible. Stella shares with Tony that she sometimes sits out at night to practice writing, a skill that does not come easily to her.

At school the next day, Mrs. Grayson begins Christmas pageant practice as a distraction from worry about Klan activity; she then assigns a personal essay, which Stella struggles to write. The teacher recommends that Stella write about herself. Stella follows that advice and submits the essay late but complete.

A traveling salesman everyone calls Spoon Man visits town. His talk of the current troubling times prompts Papa to state his desire to vote in the presidential election. Spoon Man’s story about an eagle who discovers his real identity and ability to fly inspires Stella. The next morning at church, Pastor Patton tries to rally the community men to go with him to register to vote. Only Papa and Mr. Spencer decide to go with Pastor Patton. Stella accompanies Papa and sees how unfairly the registrar treats them. The men successfully register to vote.

Mrs. Grayson requires students to complete essays for potential submission to a newspaper’s contest. Stella’s essay compares the Klan to dragons. She struggles with the secret suspicion that the leader and “Grand Dragon” of Bumblebee’s KKK group is the town’s white doctor, Dr. Packard.

The Klan sets fire to the Spencer home. Stella discovers young Hazel Spencer hiding near the burning house and returns her to safety. Pastor Patton recognizes Stella’s courage and encourages others to heed a call towards helping others. Mrs. Spencer gives Stella a typewriter from the overflow of donated items after the fire. Though Mrs. Grayson does not choose her essay for the contest, the typewriter motivates Stella to shift her writing practice to composing pretend news articles in a paper she creates, Stella’s Star Sentinel.

On Election Day, most African American neighbors accompany the men to vote. This brings Stella comfort and optimism, but soon after she sees a terrible physical assault on Tony Hawkins by two white men. Stella must leave Tony’s side during the attack to get help, which leaves her feeling upset and guilty.

When a snake bites Mama, Stella tries to bring Dr. Packard to help, but Dr. Packard, a “white patients only” doctor, rudely refuses. Mama survives because Dr. Hawkins, Tony’s father, tends to her. Stella realizes that Dr. Packard’s hatred is deeper than she thought. When Stella saves Dr. Packard’s daughter Paulette from accidentally drowning in the pond, Paulette confirms that her father has been in the Klan for much of Paulette’s life. She also says that he behaves in an unloving and abusive manner toward her and her mother. Stella threatens to tell the community his identity as the leader of the KKK group, but when Paulette soberly tells to go ahead, Stella realizes that a public revelation won’t change anything, and other ways of helping along acceptance and equality should be the path she seeks.

Stella helps her family as Mama heals from the snakebite and helps her classmates as they put on the Christmas pageant. Her actions and writing at the end of the story demonstrate both respect for truth and anticipation for the future.