母女共读笔记1： 《每一个灵魂是一颗星星》

题记：我家的正纯小姐（Isabelle）喜欢读书，经常一本书读好多遍。为了让她从书里学到东西，而不仅仅是消遣享受，我们偶尔要求她写写读书笔记。遇到不错的童书，我也会读，也写读书笔记。于是就有了母女共读的笔记。我们各自用英文写下读书笔记，我把它们译成中文。想来这也是把英文书介绍给中国读者的机会，所以以中英双语的形式分享在这里。其实，应该让正纯自己翻译成中文，但是她最近学习有些忙，特别是中文课作业比较多，暂时由我替她翻译。我们介绍的第一本书叫做《每一个灵魂是一颗星星》，作者温迪·曼斯 (Wendy Mass), 2008年出版。这本书还拍成电影了哦！

Isabelle: Wendy Mass’s Every Soul A Star

This book is about a boy named Jack, a girl named Bree and another girl named Ally.

Let’s talk about Jack. He’s funny, nice, and likes to draw. He also has a tree house in his yard. He has a brother named Mike. He’s in summer camp for science because in science class, he sat at the back of the classroom and he drew in his notebook and didn’t pay attention to his science teacher. In summer camp, he is the assistant of Mr. Silver. Meanwhile, Jack likes to use his imagination to fly, but he ends up in situations he never thought he would end up in.

Bree is fashionable, pretty, and loves makeup. She hates being ‘out-of-place,’ and she hates it when she has to leave everything she likes. But when she experiences the solar eclipse, she finds herself liking it. She is also helpful when it comes to ideas. Plus, she’s also very friendly. She has a sister named Meline.

Ally is FANTASTIC at stars. She loves stargazing, stars and all the things that have to do with stars. She has a brother named Kenny. Ally isn’t like Bree, but she’s pretty too. Unlike some people, she also doesn’t mind not having the comforts likeTVs, Wi-Fi, and toys. (Well, probably she doesn’t want toys since she’s thirteen.)

I love how the author wrote the story. Even though there aren’t any pictures, you can picture them in your mind. I also like how the author made the details. It feels like the characters are going to pop out of the book!

This book is totally wonderful. Although there are a lot of characters, the main ones are Jack, Ally and Bree. Join them as they look at the beauty of the stars, monitor an exoplanet (a planet around a star other than our sun), and, best of all, encounter an eclipse!!!

This book has lots of details and has lots of BIG words. I hope that other people will enjoy the glory of this book and the universe.

正纯：温迪·曼斯《每一个灵魂是一颗星星》

这本书有关一个男孩杰克，女孩柏芮与另一个女孩艾丽。

我们先说说杰克。他有趣，亲切，喜欢画画。他家后院有一个树屋。他有一个哥哥叫麦克。他在科学夏令营里，是因为在科学课上，他坐在教室最后面，在自己的笔记本里画画，不听老师讲课。在夏令营，他是索福先生的助手。同时，杰克喜欢凭他的想象飞，但是他往往陷入他自己没有预料的境地。

柏芮时尚、漂亮，喜欢化妆。她讨厌“不合时宜”, 她讨厌必须离开她喜欢的东西。但是，当她经历日食时，她发现自己喜欢它。她很会帮人出主意。还有，她很友好。她有一个妹妹，叫美玲。

艾丽在星星方面超级赞。她喜欢观星，星星，还有所有与星星有关的事。她有个弟弟，叫科尼。艾丽和柏芮不像，但是她也漂亮。跟很多人不一样，她不介意没有一些舒适条件，比如电视，Wi-Fi 与玩具。（呃，她大概不想要玩具了，因为她已经13岁了。）

我喜欢作者写这个故事的方式。尽管书里没有多少图片，但是你可以在心里绘出画面。我也喜欢作者写的细节。感觉人物要从书里跳出来！

这本书十分棒。尽管有很多人物，主要人物是杰克，艾丽与柏芮。跟他们一起观赏星星的美，监测外行星（不绕着我们的太阳行走的行星），然后，最棒的是，遇见日食！！！

这本书里有很多细节，很多大词。我希望其他人能够享受这个书的奇妙，还有宇宙的奇妙。（正纯文，秀才译）

Xiucai: Wendy Mass’s Every Soul A Star

This book Every Soul A Star by Wendy Mass comes to us because of the recent total solar eclipse that we witnessed here on August 21th, 2017. When I looked for books that can inspire Isabelle’s interest in this rare astronomical phenomenon, the book Every Soul A Star came into my sight.The book tells a story that three kids from different walks of life cross each other’s paths on a camp site during a total eclipse. After Isabelle read this book, she recommended it to me and I read it too. Interestingly, the total eclipse that we experienced is mentioned in this book as the thing that Wendy Mass wants her readers to look forward to after they finish her book. It seems like we were in a circle with the past through the book. By the way, the book does tell us that our current and the past are in a circle. If we have a telescope that is powerful enough, we can see through many light years and look into the past, the beginning of the cosmos. The NASA is creating such a powerful telescope and it will be launched into space next year in 2018. Isn’t that fascinating?

In the book, all of the three teenager kids have their particular troubles which are so different from each other. Ally is so embedded in the world of the isolated campsite that she is frightened by the fact that her family will move back to the urban society after the eclipse; Jack is tortured on the inside by the fact of not having a father and unwilling to interact with other people; Bree is obsessed with her status of being the most stylish and admirable girl in her circle and she carefully manages herself to avoid its loss. The three kids’ experience of the total solar eclipse on the campsite and the friendship they are building help them overcome their own obsessions and fears and become rounder persons.

Ally, Jack and Bree are so different from each other, but their strikingly different obsessions address one big issue for teenagers: what is cool that we should pursue with our energy? Each of the three kids is cool in their own way. Ally owns so much astronomical knowledge that she can be the best stargazing guide for all the visitors. Jack can ‘fly’ and he has talent in art that nobody knows. Bree is the most popular and admirable kid in her school. So in your opinion, who is the coolest among the three kids? The kid inside of me identifies with Jack and admires Ally.

Jack has the ability to fly, that is, to have lucid dream. Wendy Mass tells in the final notes that Dr. Stephen LaBerge taught her how to fly. I found some of Dr. Stephen LaBerge’s interview on youtube.com. According to him, lucid dream is dreaming when you know it’s a dream. Because you know it’s a dream, you can control yourself and do what you can’t do in reality. One can transcend the physical obstacle and do impossible things, like passing through a wall without bumping yourself into it or flying over a long distance in a glimpse of eye. It’s just like possessing a form of super power which gives you freedom of action. I had experience that, in some dreams, I found out I was in dream through logical reasoning but I chose to stay in it because I wanted to. Although I knew it was not the world I would have when I woke up. By dreaming, my unfulfilled desire was satisfied. The dream world is just like a horizontal world which is other than the reality but as fascinating and important to me.

Although I feel closer to Jack, but I find Ally really cool. She knows so much about the stars and the outer space! In my perspective, knowing the outlandish matter which is unfamiliar to most of people is really cool. Although the more widespread notion of cool is being the most popular person in your circle, just like what Bree have believed in. What do you think is cool?

In the story, Bree is the one who experienced a change of identity: After the eclipse, she changes to be interested in astronomy and care less about clothes and fashion. The beauty of the outer space helps her overcome her narrow-mindedness. Surely, the final destiny of the earth and the solar system conveys a sense of temporariness of our world which makes the norms of oursociety that we follow carefully somewhat trivial. Ally tells us that sun is expanding and will swallow our earth some day; meanwhile the whole solar system is traveling in a high speed (19 kilometers a second) toward the star Vega in the Great Triangle (or called Summer Triangle), which is the triangle formed by the three brightest stars in the summer sky. This may mean that all the substance in our world will join the stars in the sky and become new forms of celestial existence in the future. I’m curious, if our souls are permanent, will the kindred souls attract to each other as elements with magnetic force and combine to be a new form of lives, or stars?

Such sentiment like the book title “every soul is a star” may sound unrealistic, but our human beings always treat the stars in the sky more than stars. You know, according to the western Zodiacs, I’m a Sagittarius, a type of person who is impatient and fast acting, and Isabelle, you’re a Pisces, a type of person who is mild-tempered and likes dreaming. Both Sagittarius and Pisces are ecliptic constellations in the sky. In the ancient times, people of different cultures developed myths based on observation of the shared sky of stars. The three stars in the Summer Triangle, whose names are Vega, Deneb and Altair, belong to three different constellations, that is, Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra. Actually, these are Latin words for eagle, swan, and lyre (a music instrument) respectively. A Greek myth about the swan and eagle goes like this: the great god Zeus is disguised as a swan in order to seduce a goddess named Nemesis and the goddess rescues the swan while it is chased by an eagle, which actually belongs to Zeus and is helping Zeus seduce Nemesis. You know what, there is also a famous Chinese myth about the stars in the Summer Triangle. In the Chinese story, Vega wad a Weaver Girl and Altair a Cowherd. The Weaver Girl, a goddess and the granddaughter of Heavenly Emperor, falls in love with a human boy the Cowherd and stayed in the human world to marry him and raise two kids with him. But she is called back to Heaven by Heavenly Emperor and only allowed to meet with her husband and kids on the Seventh day of the Seventh Month every year. This is also the time when these three stars of the Summer Triangle are most visible in the sky. In Chinese culture, the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month is called qixi 七夕 and taken as the Lovers Day. So your Dad is supposed to give presents to Mom on that day to celebrate our union as a couple.;)

Before this book, I didn’t know about the Summer Triangle and its relation with our qixi. When I became curious of what was mentioned about it in the story, I did some extra research. This is how I expanded my knowledge starting from this book. Isabelle, thanks for recommending the story to me and introducing me to more knowledge!

秀才：温迪·曼斯的《每一个灵魂是一颗星星》

我们于2017年8月21号在当地见证了日全食，当我寻找一本能引起女儿对这一罕见的天文现象的兴趣的书，温迪·曼斯这本《每一个灵魂是一颗星星》进入我的视野。这本书讲述了三个有各自生活的少年在日食期间在一个露营地相遇的故事。很有意思的是，作者温迪曼斯在书的结语中期待她的读者在读完她的书后去关注、期待2017年即将在美国见证的这场日全食。仿佛经由这本书，我们与过去绕成一圈。顺便提一下，这本书告诉我们当下与过去确实首尾环绕：如果有一个非常强大的望远镜，我们可以望穿光年，看到过去，观测宇宙起源。而美国国家航空航天局正在创造一个强大的望远镜，准备在2018年放射进入太空。这是不是很厉害？

在这本书里，三个少年都有他们各自的烦恼。艾丽（Ally）沉浸在偏远露营地的世界，对于他们全家要搬回城里的事实感到恐惧。杰克（Jack）一直被没有父亲的现状困扰，不想跟其他人多作交流；柏芮（Bree）沉迷于做她的圈子里最时尚、令人艳羡的女孩，她小心翼翼不让自己丧失这种地位。三个孩子在露营地看日全食经历和他们之间产生的友谊让他们克服了各自的迷途与恐惧，成为更圆满的人。

艾丽、杰克与柏芮他们彼此如此相异，但是他们各自的困扰都围绕同一个青少年的命题：什么是酷的，值得尽力追求的？三个孩子都很酷，不一样的酷。艾丽有丰富的天文知识，她都可以当每个游客的最佳观星向导；杰克会“飞”，他还有不为人知的艺术天赋。柏芮是她的学校里最受欢迎，最令人羡慕的孩子。那么，在你看来，这三个孩子里谁最酷呢？我身体里的孩子跟杰克认同，又羡慕艾丽。

杰克可以飞，这是说他能做清晰的梦。温迪·曼斯在后记里提到斯蒂文斯·拉伯格（Stephen LaBerge）博士教会她飞。我在Youtube上看到一些拉伯格博士的采访。他说，清晰的梦是当你知道这是梦而做梦。因为你知道这是梦，你可以控制自己，做你在现实中不能做的事。一个人可以克服物理障碍，做不可能的事，像穿墙而过，或者瞬间飞到远处。这就像拥有超能力，而具备行动自由。我有类似经历，在一些梦中，我通过逻辑推理明白自己是在做梦，但是我选择留在其中，因为我愿意。即使我明白这不是我醒来身处的世界。通过做梦，我未竟的欲望得到满足。梦境就像不同于现实的平行世界，但是它对我来说同样迷人与重要。

尽管我对杰克感到亲近，但是我觉得艾丽很酷。她这么了解星星与太空！在我看来，知道大多数人不了解的奇异事物是很酷的事。尽管更通行的酷是在你的圈子里做最受欢迎的人，就像Bree相信的那样。那么你认为呢？

在故事中，Bree经历了认同的转变：日食之后，她对天文学产生兴趣，不再那么关心衣服与时尚。太空世界的美帮助她克服内心的狭隘。确实，地球与太阳系的最终命运衬托出这个世界的暂时性；在这一命运面前，我们谨慎遵守的社会规则显得琐碎了。艾丽告诉我们太阳在扩张，终有一天会吞没地球；同时整个太阳系正以一秒19公里的速度向大三角（或夏季大三角）中的Vega星移动。这意味着我们这个世界的所有物质终有一天会与天上的星星汇聚，成为一种新的天体存在。我好奇的是，如果我们的灵魂是永恒的，那么相似的灵魂是否会因磁场而相互吸引，共同构成一种新的生命,或者星星？

这种如书的题目“每个灵魂是一个星星”一样的感想听起来不切实际，但是我们人类总是把星星不仅仅看作星星。你知道，根据星座学，我是射手座，是缺乏耐心，行动快速的人；而Isabelle，你是双鱼座，是性格温和，喜欢做梦的人。而射手座和双鱼座都是天上的黄道星座。在古代，不同文化的人们根据对同一片星空的观察各自发展出了神话。夏季大三角中的三个星星，Vega, Deneb和Altair它们分属于三个星座，它们是Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra。实际上，这些是拉丁词语，它们的意思分别是鹰，天鹅与竖琴。关于鹰与天鹅的希腊神话是这样的：天神宙斯为了引诱女神涅墨西斯装扮成一只天鹅，让他自己的鹰假装追击天鹅，女神在营救了天鹅之后才发现自己中了宙斯的圈套。你知道吗，这个夏季大三角的星星也有著名的中国神话。在中国故事里，Vega是织女，Altair是牛郎。织女是仙女，天帝的孙女，她爱上了凡人牛郎，决定留在人间嫁给他，并和他养育了两个孩子。但是她被天帝召回天上，只允许每年7月7日与她的丈夫与孩子相聚。这个日子也是夏季大三角在天上最容易辨认的时候。于是在中国文化里，七月七日被称作七夕，是中国的情人节。所以在这一天，你的爸爸应该送妈妈礼物，以庆祝我们的结合。

在读这本书之前，我不知道夏季大三角，还有它跟七夕的关系。当我在读书时对其中提到的大三角感到好奇，我做了一点搜索与研究。这样，我从这本书开始扩展了自己的知识。Isabelle，谢谢你把这本书推荐给我，让我学到了更多的知识。