Jepp, Who Defied the Stars
New York Times Notable Children’s Books of 2012. The Wall Street Journal Best Children’s Books of 2012.
Fate:
Is it written in the stars from the moment we are born?
Or is it a bendable thing that we can shape with our own hands?
Jepp of Astraveld needs to know.
He left his countryside home on the empty promise of a stranger, only to become a captive in a luxurious prison: Coudenberg Palace, the royal court of the Spanish Infanta. Nobody warned Jepp that as a court dwarf, daily injustices would become his seemingly unshakable fate. If the humiliations were his alone, perhaps he could endure them; but it breaks Jepp’s heart to see his friend Lia suffer.
After Jepp and Lia attempt a daring escape from the palace, Jepp is imprisoned again, alone in a cage. Now, spirited across Europe in a kidnapper’s carriage, Jepp fears where his unfortunate stars may lead him. But he can't even begin to imagine the brilliant and eccentric new master — a man devoted to uncovering the secrets of the stars — who awaits him. Or the girl who will help him mend his heart and unearth the long-buried secrets of his past.
Masterfully written, grippingly paced, and inspired by real historical characters, Jepp, Who Defied the Stars is the tale of an extraordinary hero and his inspiring quest to become the master of his own destiny.
Katherine Marsh
Katherine Marsh has a gift for finding the heartbeat in history, the hidden corners, overlooked voices, and deeply human moments that echo into the present. Her stories, often set against sweeping backdrops of political unrest and social change, don’t just recount the past, they ask what it means to live through it, especially when you're young and searching for your place in a world that doesn't always make sense.
Before she was crafting award-winning novels, Marsh was steeped in stories of a different kind. As a journalist and editor, she learned how to chase truth through the noise, a skill that now gives her fiction its remarkable sense of urgency and clarity. Whether writing about a Syrian refugee hiding beneath the streets of Brussels in Nowhere Boy or exploring the trials of immigration and identity in The Lost Year, she doesn’t shy away from hard questions. Instead, she meets them head-on with empathy and grace.
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