#521 - Starry Starry Night

by Nandita Basu

“Starry Starry Night” by Nandita Basu. Published by Duckbill. A beautiful tale in graphic novel format portraying sensitive topics like loss and grief that can be helped by the power and healing touch of friendship, music and art.

After the death of his mother, Kunal is sent off to a boarding school in the hills. As it is the middle of a term, he does not get a hostel room right away. Until the time he gets a room, he has to stay with his father’s cousin Tara who he has never met. She teaches a special music programme in the same school. Kunal seems to be facing it all bravely and trying to adapt to his new life. It is a big change for him to be away from everyone and everything that he knew before. He settles in school reasonably soon and befriends Rohan who has his own problems. Rohan’s dad is very influential in school matters as he is on the board and an alumni. He has set high expectations for Rohan who finds it very difficult to live up to them. He turns to vices like smoking and develops an attitude of haughtiness and bad temper whenever he gets frustrated with his father. He is not able to handle the pressure that his father inadvertently exerts on him.

Tara has her share of problems and sadness. She lives alone with just a housekeeper around. Teaching music seems to have helped her to an extent after her best friend Nysa with whom she used to play music passed away due to cancer a couple of years ago. She always seems to have the company of an enigmatic figure visible only to her whom she addresses as death. Tara and Kunal must try to live together bearing their respective losses of which both are not comfortable talking about to anyone. Tara however has an empathetic attitude towards Kunal and can sense what he might be feeling and why he behaves in a certain way. Having gone through a similar situation, she can totally relate to his grief. Read the powerful and moving narrative to know how the two of them learn to navigate their lives through the power of music and art that they have always loved.

The book was quite thought provoking and relatable for us. My 9.5 year old had quite a few questions as we read the book. He felt sad for both Tara and Kunal in the beginning and appreciated how they tried to handle their grief in their own ways. Their empathy towards each other and the bonding that they developed as the narrative progressed made him feel that they should stay together. He seemed to like the thoughts of the author related to death and loss that she has penned every now and then interspersed in the narrative. They were quite thought provoking and an interesting way to come to terms with death and loss of a loved one. We loved the part where Tara emphasised that we can always approach someone for help rather than giving up. Also where Nysa and Tara discuss about living in the moment and watching the stars together was quite a heartening one. The title of the story made more sense after that. The eye catching illustrations are just fabulous and add their charm to the story. However I struggled a bit in some places where the sequence of speech bubbles seemed to be a bit confusing. Apart from this, it was an engrossing experience for us and there was a kind of peaceful solace that we got through the story.

The topic is quite heavy and difficult even for adults and to present it to children is quite unusual but extremely relevant. There is fear and uncertainty about death in all of us that we avoid discussing it more often than not and are not comfortable about it. To portray death as a porthole through which we enter another dimension seemed like a fantasy or sci-fi approach and made it seem less daunting.  To acknowledge death as not a finality and treat it as an integral part of life makes it a bit easier to deal with. All of us do go through the loss of a loved one sooner or later and experience pain as well as grief and are totally confused struggling to come to terms with the situation. The book definitely helps broach some of these topics around death and offers a sense of comfort, peace and hope not just for children but adults as well. There are so many layers that I feel that one reading of the book may not be enough to reveal them all. Overall a MUST READ.

P.S - Another book by the same author that we have loved reading before is “The Piano - Story of a Friendship”.

Recommended Age

The book is apt for anyone aged 10 and above.

Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Penguin India (Duckbill), for review. Thank you to Mansi, from Penguin, for sending across the book!