The Girls from the Star Valley

In a place South-West of the Milky Way you will find Star Valley. The one place in the world where you can observe the most amount of shooting stars at night. Apart from that Star Valley is very similar to most other towns.

The 8-year old twins Nete and Nola live in Star Valley with their parents. Further down their street is an old deserted house, in which the girls love rummaging about, making up fairytales and dangerous expeditions. One day they come across an old chest in the dusty attic; a real treasure chest. It turns out to be filled with letters, which Nete is terribly disappointed about, however, when Nola starts reading the first one out loud, both girls are drawn into a mysterious story about a heart-broken circus princess. When they go to retrieve the rest of the letters and finish the story, the girls discover two dodgy men searching for something in the old house while mentioning dropping a bomb – they can only be mean thieves and the girls decide to fend for the house and the letters regardless the danger.

About the author and illustrator 

Mille Gori (b. 1989) studied modern dance at the National Theatre School in Copenhagen and has since written and performed in several theatre plays for children. As a child Mille wanted to join the circus, working as an air-acrobat and has therefore always known that if she should one day write a children’s book it would have to smell of the circus ring. Therefore, all circus artists mentioned in the old letters are real people from circus history, who Mille has always admired.

Peter Bay Alexandersen trained at the Design School in Kolding in 1978. For a number of years he worked as a designer for LEGO, where he built models and came up with new toys, before becoming a freelance illustrator in 1985. Since then he has illustrated numerous newspaper articles, magazines, children’s and picture books both within and outside Denmark, including for Kim Leine, Anne Sofie Hammer and Mette Eike Neerlin.