Hester Hitchins and the Falling Stars

By Catherine Norton
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

Here is another fascinating glimpse into the lives of girls and women in Victorian England from a writer adept at bringing history to sparkling life for young readers. Norton’s other books are Crossing and The Fortune Maker which was shortlisted for the Book Links Award for Children’s Historical Fiction.

Orphaned Hester Hitchins is at 11, a maths whiz, but can’t get an education as her uncle thinks she is better employed working for him than going to school. When she wins a scholarship to a prestigious naval academy her sister helps her to get her there and then Hester has to resort to all sorts of stratagems to take her place in the school, since they weren’t expecting H. Hitchins to be a girl. Hester is a determined, singleminded, courageous, passionate individual who struggles, I was going to say ‘manfully’, but obviously that won’t do, to establish a place for herself.

She meets and makes friends with some fascinating people, some loosely based on the real people Norton uncovered in her research: Prudence a nature enthusiast, Nelson a would be engineer, Mildred the maid with the marvellous voice, and Cecily the neglected daughter of the house. The adults are also memorable: Slingsby the incompetent teacher who is both a thief and a fraud but redeems himself at the end; Lady Addington addled by grief and Gideon Ittish who believes the world is flat and that shooting stars are the souls of lost loved ones.

As well as being a cracking story rich in incident and suspense, there is much fascinating detail that never overpowers the story but makes Hester’s journey all the more immediate and real. I so enjoyed reading about lodestones, star charts, an orrery, mourning clothes, shooting stars, cat-o-nine-tails and smuggling crinolines. The story tackles complex moral issues – at one point Hester resorts to blackmail to get into the school but ‘ when you are caught fast between two wrongs, as Hester was, it can be very hard to work out the right thing to do’, p 113. Themes of family grief, class, racism are present but the overarching theme that drives the story is the struggle for equal opportunities for girls, something that still resonates today, (just think of the situation in Afghanistan).

This exhilarating adventure is an excellent resource for class study and Reader’s Cup.

Harper Collins AU 2024

Catherine Norton