by Ahmet Zappa
Countdown Clock: A timing device on a Starling’s Star-Zap. It lets them know how much time is left on a Wish Mission, which coincides with when the Wish Orb will fade.
Crystal Mountains: The most beautiful mountains on Starland. They are located across the lake from Starling Academy.
Cycle of Life: A Starling’s life span. When Starlings die, they are said to have “completed their Cycle of Life.”
Dramboozle: A natural herb that promotes sweet dreams and comforting sleep.
Druderwomp: An edible barrel-like bush capable of pulling up its own roots and rolling like a tumbleweed, then planting itself again.
Flareworks: Colorful displays at the Festival of Illumination.
Flutterfocus: A Starland creature similar to a Wishworld butterfly but with illuminated wings.
Galliope: A sparkly Starland creature similar to a Wishworld horse.
Garble greens: A Starland vegetable similar to spinach.
Glimmerwillow tree: A Starland tree with hanging branches called glimmervines that create a space at its base resembling a closed-off leafy room.
Glitterberries: A sweet Starland fruit.
Gloak tree: A Starland tree known for its strength and beauty.
Globerbeem:Large, friendly lightning bug–type insects that are sparkly and lay eggs.
Gloom Flats: A rural, sparsely populated, dimly illuminated area of Starland and home to Piper’s family.
Glorange: A glowing orange fruit. Its juice is often enjoyed at breakfast time.
Glowfur: A small, furry Starland creature with gossamer wings that eats flowers and glows.
Glowmoss: A soft vegetation that covers fields on Starland.
Good Wish Orbs: Orbs that are the result of positive wishes made on Wishworld. They are planted in Wish-Houses.
Halo Hall: The building where Starling Academy classes are held.
Holo-text: A message received on a Star-Zap and projected into the air. There are also holo-albums, holo-billboards, holo-books, holo-cards, holo-communications, holo-diaries, holo-flyers, holo-letters, holo-papers, holo-pictures, and holo–place cards. Anything that would be made of paper or contain writing or images on Wishworld is a hologram on Starland.
Hydrong: The equivalent of a Wishworld hundred.
Impossible Wish Orbs: Orbs that are the result of wishes made on Wishworld that are beyond the power of Starlings to grant.
Isle of Misera: A barren rocky island off the coast of New Prism.
Lightku: A spare and simple poem with only three lines of verse and seventeen syllables total.
Lightku Isle: An isolated part of Starland with sandy, sparkling beaches, where local Starlings speak solely in lightkus.
Lightning Lounge: A place on the Starling Academy campus where students relax and socialize.
Little Dipper Dormitory: Where first- and second-year students live.
Luminous Lake: A serene and lovely lake next to the Starling Academy campus.
Luminous Library: The impressive library at Starling Academy.
Mirror Mantra: A saying specific to each Star Darling that when recited gives her (and her Wisher) reassurance and strength. When a Starling recites her Mirror Mantra while looking in a mirror, she will see her true appearance reflected.
Moonium: An amount similar to a Wishworld million.
Old Prism: A medium-sized historical city about an hour from Starling Academy.
Plinking: A delicious striped fruit that bounces like a ball.
Power Crystal: The powerful stone that each Star Darling receives once she has granted her first wish.
Serenity Islands: A Starland recreation area. Starlings sometimes take hover-canoe rides around it.
Shooting stars: Speeding stars that Starlings can latch on to and ride to Wishworld.
Silver Blossom: The final manifestation of a Good Wish Orb. This glimmering metallic bloom is placed in the Hall of Granted Wishes.
Sleepibelle: Piper’s Wish Blossom. Its blue-green petals hang down and swing in a soothing motion, like a pendulum.
Snuggle sack: A heavily quilted tube that immediately adjusts to a Starling’s height and body shape for extreme comfort.
Sparklecorn: A versatile Starland food.
Sparkle shower: An energy shower Starlings take every day to get clean and refresh their sparkling glow.
Star ball: An intramural sport that shares similarities with soccer on Wishworld. But star ball players use energy manipulation to control the ball.
Starcar: The primary mode of transportation for most Starlings. These ultrasafe vehicles drive themselves on cushions of wish energy.
Star Caves: The caverns underneath Starling Academy where the Star Darlings’ secret Wish-Cavern is located.
Starf!:A Starling expression of dismay.
Star flash: News bulletin, often used starcastically.
Star Kindness Day: A special Starland holiday that celebrates spreading kindness, compliments, and good cheer.
Starland City:The largest city on Starland, also its capital.
Starlicious:Tasty, delicious.
Starlings: The glowing beings with sparkly skin who live on Starland.
Starpepper jelly: A condiment (often crushed) that adds spice and flavor to Starland foods.
Star Quad: The center of the Starling Academy campus. The dancing fountain, band shell, and hedge maze are located here.
Star sack: A Starland tote bag. This container starts about the size of a lunch bag, but it expands to hold whatever is stored inside.
Star salutations:The Starling way to say “thank you.”
Staryear: A period of 365 days on Starland, the equivalent of a Wishworld year.
Star-Zap: The ultimate smartphone that Starlings use for all communications. It has myriad features.
Stellar School: A rival of Starling Academy in star ball.
Stellation: The point of a star. Halo Hall has five stellations, each housing a different department.
Sunnet: A rhyming poem that can be any length and meter but must include a source of light.
Supernova:A stellar explosion. Also used colloquially, meaning “really angry,” as in “She went supernova when she found out the bad news.”
Time of Letting Go: One of the four seasons on Starland. It falls between the warmest season and the coldest, similar to fall on Wishworld.
Time of Lumiere: The warmest season on Starland, similar to summer on Wishworld.
Time of New Beginnings: Similar to spring on Wishworld, this is the season that follows the coldest time of year; it’s when plants and trees come into bloom.
Time of Shadows: The coldest season of the year on Starland, similar to winter on Wishworld.
Toothlight: A high-tech gadget that Starlings use to clean their teeth.
Trilight: A planet with three moons that is visible from Starland.
Wish Blossom: The bloom that appears from a Wish Orb after its wish is granted.
Wish energy: The positive energy that is released when a wish is granted. Wish energy powers everything on Starland.
Wisher: The Wishling who has made the wish that is being granted.
Wish-Granters: Starlings whose job is to travel down to Wishworld to help make wishes come true and collect wish energy.
Wish-House: The place where Wish Orbs are planted and cared for until they sparkle. Once the orb’s wish is granted, it becomes a Wish Blossom.
Wishlings: The inhabitants of Wishworld.
Wish Mission: The task a Starling undertakes when she travels to Wishworld to help grant a wish.
Wish Orb: The form a wish takes on Wishworld before traveling to Starland. There it will grow and sparkle when it’s time to grant the wish.
Wish Pendant: A gadget that absorbs and transports wish energy, helps Starlings locate their Wishers, and changes a Starling’s appearance. Each Wish Pendant holds a different special power for its Star Darling.
Wishworld: The planet Starland relies on for wish energy. The beings on
Wishworld know it by another name—Earth.
Wishworld Outfit Selector: A program on each Star-Zap that accesses Wishworld fashions for Starlings to wear to blend in on their Wish Missions.
Wishworld Surveillance Deck: Located high above the campus, it is where Starling Academy students go to observe Wishlings through high-powered telescopes.
Zing: A traditional Starling breakfast drink. It can be enjoyed hot or iced.
Keep reading for a sneak peek at Star Darlings: Astra’s Mixed-Up Mission!
“Piper! Piper!” called Astra, waving urgently at the girl sitting across the cafeteria table from her. Astra’s red-and-silver-striped fingernails caught the light and she noticed with dismay that the polish she had applied on Wishworld was already starting to chip. She knew it wouldn’t last through her star ball practice later that afternoon. What a difference from her Starland manicure, which had taken forever to remove!
Piper looked up from her dream holo-diary, flipping a lock of hair the color of ocean foam over her shoulder. “Is someone on their way?” she asked.
“I think Tessa is heading over,” Astra told her. When the two girls had returned from Piper’s Wish Mission, they had immediately noticed that something seemed off with their fellow Star Darlings. Everyone was acting really odd. But they couldn’t quite put their finger on exactly what was going on. So they decided they’d study their roommates first and report back to each other.
Back in their room, after Clover had hugged Astra tightly for the tenth time, Astra realized that no one could have possibly missed her that much. So she sent this holo-text:
Clover is a mad hugger! What about Vega?
After a while she received the following holo-text:
To figure it out took me some time. But Vega only talks in rhyme!
They made plans to study the rest of the Star Darlings the next starday, starting at breakfast. So there they sat, awaiting the other Starlings’ arrival.
Piper shut off the holo-diary with a swipe of her hand. “Star apologies, Astra,” she said. “I just thought I’d skim through some of my latest dream entries to see if I could come up with any clues about what’s going on. You know, any themes or symbols that might have deeper meaning.”
Just a few stardays ago Astra would have scoffed at such a statement. But now she totally got it. To be completely honest, when she first met Piper she found her slow dreaminess annoying and her occasional dark side ridiculous. But now Astra had a new respect both for the hidden messages that dreams could hold as well as the strength of Piper’s intuitive powers. She also admired Piper’s faith in herself. She didn’t seem to care much about what others thought of her—much like Astra, in fact. Astra realized they had more similarities than they had differences and now they were fast friends. The fact that they both recognized that something was amiss had cemented their bond.
“Find anything?” Astra asked hopefully.
Piper sighed. “Not yet,” she said.
They both watched as Tessa made a glitterbeeline for the table near the windows that the Star Darlings had claimed as their own, her brilliant green eyes flashing. All the Star Darlings knew how much Tessa loved food and looked forward to each meal. “Star greetings,” she said pleasantly. She plopped down in a chair across from the two girls. “I’m starving!” she announced.
A Bot-Bot waiter zoomed up to drop off Piper’s and Astra’s breakfasts and take Tessa’s order. She thought for a moment then nodded. “I’ll take a pastry basket and a cup of Zing, please,” she said.
Her breakfast arrived shortly thereafter and Tessa hovered her hand over the baked treats, licking her lips in anticipation. She pulled out an ozziefruit croissant and took a big bite. “Moonberry,” she said when she was done chewing. She made quick work of the flaky pastry, then, dabbing the corners of her mouth with a cloth napkin for any errant crumbs, reached in again. This time she grabbed a mini moonmuffin, which Astra could see was liberally studded with lolofruit. She popped the entire thing into her mouth and chewed. “Moonberry again!” she said. “What are the chances?”
Astra’s Star-Zap, which was sitting in her lap in silent mode, flickered. She flipped it open and read the message.
Tessa = Everything tastes like moonberries?
Sure looks that way!
Cassie and Sage strolled in next. Cassie sat next to Piper and smiled at her as she flicked open her napkin.
“Starkudos on your mission, Piper,” she said.
“Star salutations, Cassie,” Piper said, digging into her bowl of Quasar Krispies with sliced starberries.
“It probably didn’t…” Cassie said, obviously trying to figure out the best way to phrase her statement. “It probably didn’t go quite as seamlessly as mine, did it?” She thought for a moment and laughed, placing a hand on Piper’s arm. “Of course it didn’t!” she said. “What was I thinking? My mission was such a stellar success!”
Piper looked stricken for a moment. But her expression changed to a knowing grin when she received Astra’s holo-text:
Cassie = Braggy!
The rest of the Star Darlings began to arrive at the table. Astra and Piper watched as Sage giggled when Clover shamefacedly confessed to getting a D on her Chronicle Class examination and then guffawed when the Bot-Bot waiter informed her the kitchen was out of the Sparkle-O’s she had ordered.
Sage = Can’t stop laughing.
Piper nodded from across the table and began to write a holo-message in return.
Libby = Can’t stay awake.
Astra looked over at the girl, whose cheek was resting on her plate of tinsel toast. My stars, she thought. She reached for her mug, drank her last gulp of twinkle tea, and began to compose a reply.
“Hey,” said Cassie, noticing. “Are you writing a message about me?” she asked eagerly. She looked down at her silver dress and lace tights and smiled. “I did pick a startastically fashionable outfit today, didn’t I?”
“You do look nice today,” Astra said. To Piper she holo-texted:
They don’t know that they are acting odd, do they?
Watch this.
“Vega,” she said. “Have you noticed that everything you say rhymes?”
Ten Star Darlings’ heads swiveled around to look at Piper, curious looks on their faces.
Cassie cocked her head to the side. “Really?” she said. “I don’t hear it.”
Gemma turned to Tessa. “Imagine if I talked in rhyme all the time? That would be so annoying!”
Tessa laughed. “My stars!” she said to her sister. “Bite your tongue!”
“Ouch!” said Gemma.
Vega stared at Piper like she had three auras. “Piper, do you need some schooling? Talking in rhyme? You must be fooling!”
With a quick glance at Astra, Piper asked, “You really didn’t just hear that?”
“I think it is completely clear,” Vega replied. “There isn’t anything to hear.”
Does that answer your question?
It certainly does!
Shana Muldoon Zappa is a jewelry designer and writer who was born and raised in Los Angeles. She has an endless imagination and a passion to inspire positivity through her many artistic endeavors. She and her husband, Ahmet Zappa, collaborated on Star Darlings especially for their magical little girl and biggest inspiration, Halo Violetta Zappa.
Ahmet Zappa is the New York Times best-selling author of Because I’m Your Dad and The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless. He writes and produces films and television shows and loves pancakes, unicorns, and making funny faces for Halo and Shana.
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