Star, Star

This is a delightful imaginary tale of a little man’s fight against the authorities, accompanied by Hilla Havkin’s charming illustrations. Yoss is the new tenant at Havatzelet Street who lives on the roof and spends half the day painting and the other half resting. But he is not an ordinary person, and his neighbors don’t like him because he is different. He keeps a cat and a cactus plant and speaks to the stars above. One day he plucks a star from the sky and brings it down to live with him on the roof. Yoss takes his star out for a walk and everybody looks at him; that is what “a pea feels when the prongs of many forks try to catch it.” Yoss takes it to school because his neighbor says the star is not well brought up; his teacher speaks to him in “the voice of a well-sharpened pencil;” the psychologist meets with him but wants to know how Yoss feels about it; he is supposed to take out a licence for a star but the clerk tells him that if there is no licence for stars, there can be no stars. People come from far and wide to see it, journalists, poets, and university professors. The people from Havatzelet Street decide to profit from their unique tenant, put it in the basement and sell tickets to see it. Yoss is remorseful – “stars don’t belong to anyone.” He takes the star out of the basement and frees it, happy to see it return to the sky.