Laura's Star by Klaus Baumgart

This book has been a favourite of mine ever since I was a youngster for two reasons; firstly because I have so many lovely memories of it being read to me by my granddad and secondly, because I love the way that Laura's character transforms from the beginning to the end of the story.

Plot Summary
The title of the story is quite self explanatory: the story is about a little girl called Laura who longs for a friend that she can talk to and share secrets with. One night she is mesmerised by a glittering star, falling from the sky, which lands broken on the pavement. Laura rescues the star and takes it carefully to her room to fix it. There, Laura confides in the star by telling it all of her secrets.

In the morning, Laura wakes up to find her new friend missing and is sad throughout the day. When she later goes to bed, she finds her bandaged star in the same place she had left it. While she is happy to have her friend back, Laura realises that her star is dyeing and so makes the decision to set him free to return to the night sky.

Key themes
A magical story that helps children to understand the importance of friendship and that sometimes, we have to let go of things that are precious to us. Baumgart's story also teaches children that, sometimes, we have to put the needs of other before our own and that no matter how alone we may feel, there will always be someone there. Friends come in all shapes and sizes. This story can also be interpreted as a metaphor for children dealing with bereavement, as the star symbolises their lost one.

Structure

           ✤ OPENING:

"I wish I had a friend," sighed Laura as she gazed out of her bedroom window.
 

✤ CLOSING:

Each night when she went to bed, she could whisper her secrets into the darkness, knowing that the little star was somewhere out there, listening.

The story, in my opinion, is based heavily upon Laura's character transformation and growth as a person, the opening and closing lines of the story are clear evidence of this.  In the opening line we meet a lonely, unhappy Laura that hides away and longs to find a friend but by the end of the story, we see that Laura has transformed into the happy, comforted little girl that she should be.


Adaptations
Laura's star is also a 2004 German animated film based upon Baumgart's book and produced by Warner Bros. The film was produced in both German and English and has become the most successful animated film in all of German history with a sequel to the story released in 2009. Though I'm yet to watch the film, plot summaries that I have read online lead me to believe that the story has been dramatized for film purposes. In the film, Laura and her brother Tommy (there was no Tommy in the book) discover that the little star has powers and can do amazing things like making people fly and brining inanimate objects over time (this also never happened in the book).

A sad but beautiful story of the friendship between a lonely little girl and a star.