Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars by Catherine Norton

Title: Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars

Author: Catherine Norton

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 31^st July 2024

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 256

Price: $22.99

Synopsis: Navigation skills have many uses, but can they help Hester find her place in the universe?

Fans of The Fortune Maker will be sure to love Catherine Norton’s enchanting new middle-grade historical fiction book.

It’s 1866 and Hester Hitchins’ father is missing at sea.

Determined to find him, eleven-year-old Hester wins a place at Addington’s Nautical Navigation Academy, where she will learn to navigate by the stars. But the academy is just for boys, and what’s more, no one seems to be in charge.

Bumbling schoolmaster Captain Slingsby doesn’t know anything about navigation. Lord Addington is obsessed with building the world’s biggest telescope and Lady Addington believes that falling stars are the souls of the dead.

With the help of a lodestone, her new friends Pru and Nelson, and a dazzling meteor storm, can Hester set things right – and find her own place in the universe?

~*~

Hester Hitchins and her siblings – Joyce, Horace and the twins – have been orphaned. Their father died at sea in the Merchant Navy, and their mother has died not long after giving birth to the twins. Hester is eleven, and the middle child. Whilst Joyce cares for the twins, Hester must work for Uncle Henry making cat-o’-nine tails for the chandler. None of the children are allowed to go to school. They must work to support themselves and Uncle Henry, lest they be sent into service and the orphanage. But Hester doesn’t believe her father is dead – she’s determined to use the stars and her lodestone to find him.

But Hester is smart – she’s learnt about navigating from her father, and is very bright. She’s got a good aptitude to learn just about anything, and lives in a world of navigational knowledge. A world where girls and women are destined for service, marriage, and having a family. Not becoming sailors. Everyone keeps telling Hester to let her parents go – to accept her fate, and not look for anything more. When Hester finds out about a test to get into Addington’s Nautical Navigation Academy, she disguises herself as a boy and sits the test. And she gets top marks.

When she gets to the Academy – with Joyce’s help, she finds out is only for boys, and is thrust into service as a scullery maid. Hester befriends Mildred, another maid, and one of the boys, Nelson, who stands out because of his race. Yet, as Hester works her way into the school, she finds out that nobody is really in charge. Lord and Lady Addington are distracted by something, and are distant. The manor seems to be empty, though the sounds coming from upstairs contradict this. And the bumbling Captain Slingsby has his own secrets that Hester knows about.

As Hester uncovers the secrets of the mysterious academy, she knows that she could be the only one who can help. Lord Addington wants to build the world’s biggest telescope, and Lady Addington believes that falling stars are the souls of the dead, and all their time and energy goes into these causes, rather than the education they promise to provide. Hester and Nelson have a nose for mystery – and once Hester starts helping Nelson with his lessons, things start to shift. Nelson and Mildred are the first characters to accept Hester for who she is. Each has their own obstacles – gender, class, race – and that is what bonds them. Everyone underestimates them. And they also have their own secrets. As readers, we know Hester’s secrets, but Mildred’s and Nelson’s are slowly revealed throughout the novel. She is also helped by Pru, who lives nearby and pops up whenever she wants something.

It also examines ideas about inventions, steam engines, and how people understood the world in 1866. We get an insight into how people thought about the new technologies evolving in the nineteenth century, whether it is a belief that will eventually disproved, or whether it is a determination to create something that will be used by many one day. In doing so, it introduces these ideas to younger readers and skilfully. It allows them to understand what led to the beliefs that people like Lady Addington had, whilst having a voice of reason through Hester.

Another key aspect of the novel was the way Catherine Norton is how she deals with societal issues – racism, sexism, and classism. Back in 1866, these attitudes would have been very much accepted by the majority of people. Or at the very least, tolerated because it was so widespread, there may not have been too many people who felt they could speak out about it. Those affected like Mildred, Nelson, Hester and by extension, Cecily, who was also constrained by her class, gender and family were the main ones who acted against it. Who did something – and did what they could with what they had at the time. Creating these four characters illustrates that the way society has approached discrimination and various issues over time has changed. Many years ago, things might have been more overt than they are today. More accepted. It alluded to the changes within these attitudes that have occurred over the decades and centuries, though there are some things that may not have completely changed. It could be that they can be more subtle these days.

Girls are at the heart of this novel, much like Catherine’s previous novel, The Fortune Maker. They drive the story as they take part in a world that is often hostile to them. A world that sees them as lesser. Yet Catherine allows her female leads to use the world around them and what they have at hand to fight back and make a difference. Even if it is a small difference and change, it’s something that they can achieve and work with.  I enjoyed that Hester was allowed to embrace her interests and be a bit of a rebel throughout the novel. Giving these women a voice highlights the need to see the world and history through a range of different perspectives in our literature. It makes stories like this powerful because it may not always be expected.

Another great middle grade novel for historical fiction fans.