A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that celebrates community and creativity. Winner of the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent and soon to be a major motion picture directed by Michael B. Jordan!
It’s Christmas Eve in Harlem, but twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul and his mom aren’t celebrating. They’re still reeling from his older brother’s death in a gang-related shooting just a few months earlier. Then Lolly’s mother’s girlfriend brings him a gift that will change everything: two enormous bags filled with Legos. Lolly’s always loved Legos, and he prides himself on following the kit instructions exactly. Now, faced with a pile of building blocks and no instructions, Lolly must find his own way forward.
His path isn’t clear—and the pressure to join a “crew,” as his brother did, is always there. When Lolly and his friend are beaten up and robbed, joining a crew almost seems like the safe choice. But building a fantastical Lego city at the community center provides Lolly with an escape—and an unexpected bridge back to the world.
David Barclay Moore paints a powerful portrait of a boy teetering on the edge—of adolescence, of grief, of violence—and shows how Lolly’s inventive spirit helps him build a life with firm foundations and open doors.
A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine Top 10 Children's Books of the Year
A Boston Globe Best Children's Book of the Year
Six Starred Reviews
“A fast and furious read in which we meet some amazing people, people that stay with us. David Barclay Moore is an exciting new voice. We definitely haven’t heard the last of his brilliance.” —Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming
“The Stars Beneath Our Feet is about the weight of the world on the back of a child, and the creative tools necessary to alleviate that pressure. I found myself rooting for Lolly, and you will too.” —Jason Reynolds, Coretta Scott King Honor Winner for As Brave As You
A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that celebrates community and creativity. Winner of the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent and soon to be a major motion picture directed by Michael B. Jordan!
It’s Christmas Eve in Harlem, but twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul and his mom aren’t celebrating. They’re still reeling from his older brother’s death in a gang-related shooting just a few months earlier. Then Lolly’s mother’s girlfriend brings him a gift that will change everything: two enormous bags filled with Legos. Lolly’s always loved Legos, and he prides himself on following the kit instructions exactly. Now, faced with a pile of building blocks and no instructions, Lolly must find his own way forward.
His path isn’t clear—and the pressure to join a “crew,” as his brother did, is always there. When Lolly and his friend are beaten up and robbed, joining a crew almost seems like the safe choice. But building a fantastical Lego city at the community center provides Lolly with an escape—and an unexpected bridge back to the world.
David Barclay Moore paints a powerful portrait of a boy teetering on the edge—of adolescence, of grief, of violence—and shows how Lolly’s inventive spirit helps him build a life with firm foundations and open doors.
A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine Top 10 Children's Books of the Year
A Boston Globe Best Children's Book of the Year
Six Starred Reviews
“A fast and furious read in which we meet some amazing people, people that stay with us. David Barclay Moore is an exciting new voice. We definitely haven’t heard the last of his brilliance.” —Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming
“The Stars Beneath Our Feet is about the weight of the world on the back of a child, and the creative tools necessary to alleviate that pressure. I found myself rooting for Lolly, and you will too.” —Jason Reynolds, Coretta Scott King Honor Winner for As Brave As You
Reviews-
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Starred review from July 10, 2017
Wallace “Lolly” Rachpaul, 12, is still reeling from the murder of his older brother, Jermaine. The only thing that makes him feel better is building with Legos, and after his mother’s girlfriend, Yvonne, gives him two trash bags full of loose Legos for Christmas, he lets his imagination soar. When Lolly’s creation outgrows his West Indian family’s Harlem apartment, he moves it to the rec center. Encouraged by the facility’s director, Mr. Ali, Lolly and Big Rose, a girl with autism, begin to build “the alien metropolis of Harmonee.” Outside the safety of the rec center, life for Lolly and his best friend Vega is getting more complicated. Two older boys, Harp and Gully, are hassling them, and their menacing presence escalates into an act of violence. Debut author Moore delivers a realistic and at times brutal portrait of life for young people of color who are living on the edge of poverty. At the same time, Moore infuses the story with hope and aspiration, giving Lolly the chance to find salvation through creativity. Ages 10–up. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. -
Starred review from June 15, 2017
Multicultural Harlem lives again in this daringly diverse tale of growing up against the odds and the imaginative, healing possibilities that we can create through the choices we make. Moore turns his back on the newly whitewashed Harlem, taking readers to the St. Nick projects to meet brown-skinned West Indian (Trini, to be exact) Wallace "Lolly" Rachpaul, full of contradiction and agency. Moore surrounds Lolly with a grand ensemble of characters that echo the ample cross sections and cultural milieus of the big city. There's Lolly's mother, who has embraced her queer sexuality with toy-store security guard Yvonne, who becomes a secondary caregiver after the tragic loss of Lolly's older brother, Jermaine to the drug-hustling crew underworld of Harlem. Lolly hopes that he and his dark-skinned Dominican best friend, Vega, can resist its allure. Mr. Ali is the veteran social worker with marginal resources and a big heart, refashioning his little basement space to unravel the traumas and difficult choices that could lead astray the black and brown youth he serves. And don't forget Big Rose (who doesn't like to be called Big). Then there are Lolly's Legos, which, block by block, help him imagine a healthy future. These characters are vibrantly alive, reconstituting the realness that is needed to bring diverse, complicated stories to the forefront of our shelves. A debut that serves as a powerful instructive for writing from and reading the intersections--125th Street-size intersections for all readers to enjoy. (Fiction. 10-14)COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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January 1, 2018
Twelve-year-old Lolly's father has left, his older brother was shot and killed, and he's being threatened by the East Side crew. His world turned upside down, Lolly builds another world from LEGOs at the community center, where new friends support him. Debut author Moore's affection for these characters and the Harlem setting is palpable, and Lolly's first-person point of view conveys his inner turmoil.(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
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November 1, 2017
Twelve-year-old Lolly Rachpaul loves his Harlem neighborhood, that big glowing crossword puzzle bisected by 125th Street. ( If Harlem was a human body, then 125th would be its pumping heart, throbbing all the time. ) But Lolly's life isn't going well. His father has left, he's being threatened by Harp and Gully of the East Side crew, and his older brother Jermaine is dead--he became a street pharmacist and was shot and killed. What do you do when your world turns upside down? Lolly builds another world, a LEGO world, constantly growing and evolving. And when it overtakes the apartment in the St. Nicholas Houses he shares with his mother and her girlfriend Yvonne, he builds it during afterschool at the community center instead. There he slowly befriends Big Rose, an outcast, and is supported by program director Mr. Ali, who talks to him about Jermaine. Debut author Moore's affection for his characters and his Harlem setting is palpable, and Lolly's first-person point of view conveys his inner turmoil, especially effective when he and his friend Vega decide to take matters (and a gun) into their own hands to stop Harp and Gully's harassment. The moral decision they must make is akin to Will's in Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down (rev. 7/17). Though the conclusion is didactic, repeating a lesson more neatly embedded in the narrative twenty pages earlier, the novel will be powerful and memorable for a wide audience. dean Schneider(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
- School Library Journal, starred review "This well-honed debut novel paints a vivid picture of Lolly and the choices that he must make, but beyond that, it introduces a cast of memorable, fully realized characters, each of whom will stay with readers long beyond the closing page."
- Bulletin, starred review "Readers will marvel at the grandeur of what Lolly and Rose are able to build and learn together and will find comfort in the intimacy of Lolly's introspective narration."
- Kirkus Reviews, starred review "A debut that serves as a powerful instructive for writing from and reading the intersections--125th Street-size intersections for all readers to enjoy."
- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Debut author Moore delivers a realistic and at times brutal portrait of life for young people of color who are living on the edge of poverty. At the same time, Moore infuses the story with hope and aspiration, giving Lolly the chance to find salvation through creativity."
- VOYA, starred review "Moore's work with the Harlem Children's Zone and Quality Services for the Autism Community serve him well in creating this debut, slice-of-life narrative with an authentic adolescent voice and strong adult supports, all of whom are true to their urban world."
