A 2025 Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year! “Through brief encounters once every 76 years, two celestial bodies become friends. Bright, gentle illustrations. Author’s note provides information about Halley’s Comet.”
Bank Street College of Education

“Lee Juck tells a sweet … story of celestial friendship that is rendered sublime by Lee Jinhee’s luminous illustrations. In the tale, a lonely little star hangs in an empty gray part of the universe. This unhappy character looks like a furry starfish with all but one of its limbs tucked in, so that it resembles a teardrop… With the coming of [a] brilliant object, the star and its gloomy atmosphere are suffused with radiant gold… When 76 years have passed, the comet— like Halley’s Comet—reappears... From then on, reflecting the emotional state of the star and the comet, gray is banished from the pages and everything exudes joy, brilliance, fun and possibility—which, when you think about it, isn’t such a bad representation of good friendship.”
Wall Street Journal

STARRED REVIEW! ? “Magic always occurs when a book’s narration and illustrations are perfectly matched. But an even more special kind of magic happens when the art goes beyond the written word and weaves a quiet message of its own. Comet & Star is a deceptively simple, genuinely sweet story about friendship with an underlying profundity that will touch even the grumpiest readers’ hearts… Lee’s soft colored pencil art is full of movement, warmth and emotion; this is a humble little story that is easy to like. But Lee’s art tells a second story, too: As the comet and star’s friendship unfolds in the skies, their lives are also being carefully documented below through newspaper clippings, photographs and notebooks filled with drawings… After several rereadings of Comet & Star, a realization hit this reviewer like a comet. The star waits for its only friend to return every 76 years, but here on Earth, it has admirers it could never have imagined—in a sense, friends who observe and love from miles away. That’s the true message of Comet & Star: For every friend you see, there are countless others thinking of you. Whether you need a gift for an old friend you rarely see, or a bedtime story for a little one who loves to watch the night sky, Comet & Star is the perfect choice. Just like Halley’s Comet, books with this unique magic don’t stop by every day. Don’t miss it.”
BookPage

This friendship story is out of this world... Translated from Korean, this is a lovely tribute to the power of patience, the wonders of our universe, and friendship triumphing over loneliness. The spare text complements the soft, detailed illustrations, rendered in a warm palette of blue, orange, and yellow to express both the dismay the star feels at the missed connection and the joy of forging a bond in this vast universe. A concluding note briefly cites Halley’s Comet and its multi-decade trajectory as inspiration for this beautifully told tale... Heartfelt evidence that true connections exist in the cosmos and beyond.
Kirkus Reviews