title: My House Has Stars
author:  Megan McDonald 
description: McDonald (Is This a House for Hermit Crab?) turns to geography here, showing vastly different houses from around the world which all have one feature in common: the "roof" of stars that hangs over them. Eight colorful, dense vignettes feature a child describing his or her home ("My house has walls made of sheep's wool and a real door in the front of the tent that squeaks like a crybaby"). The "tour" of each dwelling, be it houseboat, igloo, skyscraper, yurt, etc., concludes with a reference to the stars above; for example, a child in a pueblo says, "I see stars, like tiny handprints, where Coyote scattered the mica dust and stars were born!" Unexplained facts and referents abound, tantalizing readers but also likely to frustrate them: What is a jeepney? Why does the Weaver Princess star go to meet the Ox Boy star? Catalanotto's (Who Came Down That Road?) diffused watercolors show the children in their environments. Facing art, beneath the blocks of text, clues readers into the characters' locations: a hazy map of the world, with the child's homeland circled. The impressionistic style of the pictures suggests as much as it represents. Unfortunately, this approach exacerbates the gaps left in the vignettes. At best this is a lyrical invitation to a scavenger hunt on the reference shelf; otherwise it is essentially a cliff-hanger. Ages 5-8. <br />Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  FUN  
  HOUSE
  
  
  A JOHN CEEPAK MYSTERY
  
  
  Chris Grabenstein
  
  
  ![img](images/00001.jpg)
  
  
  PEGASUS CRIME  
  NEW YORK
  
  
  
  
  
  For  
  Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel R. Boyle (1970–1991)  
  and all the brave men and women  
  who daily risk their lives  
  to keep us safe.
  
  
  
  
  
  1
  
  
  HE WASN’T HAPPY ABOUT IT, BUT LAST NIGHT MY PARTNER John Ceepak became a TV
  star.
  
  
  Maybe you caught his act on YouTube this morning. The video snip of his guest
  appearance on the reality TV show Fun House already has like two million hits.
  Ceepak, the one guy in America who could not care less about being famous, now
  is.
  
  
  And it’s sort of my fault.
  
  
  Back in June, at the all-new, all-wood Rolling Thunder roller coaster, I met a
  girl named Layla Shapiro. She’s my age, just turned twenty-six. Very sexy,
  very sassy. Turns out Layla (yes, her parents really dug that old Eric Clapton
  song) was visiting Sea Haven—our sunny resort town down the Jersey Shore—over
  Memorial Day weekend because she was scouting lo