ALA Booklist

Goble retells a Blackfoot Indian myth about six orphans who live on the fringe of their tribe, befriended by the camp dogs, scorned by the children, and barely tolerated by the adults. Saddened by the tribe's unkindness, the orphans decide to become stars. When they ascend to the Sun Man and Moon Woman's tepee they tell of the unkindness. Sun Man angrily causes a drought, but relents when the leader of the dogs cries out for rain. So they will always be together, the orphans become the star cluster we call the Pleiades. With Goble's signature style of crisp lines, clear colors, and bright, white backgrounds, the artwork clearly sets the tale within the native American culture, yet the inclusion of modern telephone poles and cars in the last scene indicates that the message of the myth has relevance today, speaking to any culture that fails to care for all its children. Source notes and a discussion of Blackfoot tepee painting fill in readers' knowledge of the tale and the illustrations. Vintage Goble. (Reviewed Mar. 15, 1993)

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1993)

This story, based on a sacred Native-American myth, explains the origin of the Pleiades stars, or, as the Blackfoot call them, the Bunched Stars or the Lost Children. Six orphan brothers who are homeless, hungry, and dressed in rags give up being people and decide instead to become stars. Goble's retelling is smooth, respectful, and carefully documented. Many of his stylistic trademarks--the use of bright color; impeccable attention to illustrating authentic regalia; minutely detailed portraits of animals and insects--are evident in the artwork.

Kirkus Reviews

As Goble explains, This story is based on a sacred Blackfoot myth, telling the origin of the Pleiades.'' Setting the stage with a glimpse of the storyteller, whenthe Star People are looking down at us through the smoke hole,'' Goble describes six homeless, hungry orphans, clothed in their neighbors' discards, taunted, befriended only by the camp dogs. Determined to find another home, they decide against being flowers (``the buffaloes will eat us'') or stones, which break, and agree to become stars. In their ascent, one looks back and becomes a comet; the others are taken in by Sun and Moon, who punish the earth with a drought, relenting, in time, for the sake of the animals; the children, surrounded by the faithful dogs, can still be seen clustered in the sky. Goble's distinctive style is used with such imagination that it never grows stale; here, the beautifully decorated tipis and tightly grouped orphans provide motifs for the harmonious compositions, while spare scenes of the drought contrast dramatically with the fecundity elsewhere. A grand addition to a notable oeuvre, with a powerful contemporary message. (Folklore/Picture book. 4+)"

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this retelling of a Blackfoot Indian legend, six neglected orphans become stars. """"Goble tells the myth with earnest simplicity, a gentle cadence to his words imbuing the text with particular significance. His illustrations-dazzling in color, crisp and clean in design-prove typically arresting,"""" said PW. All ages. (June)

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-- A sacred tale of the Blackfoot, The Lost Children tells of six orphaned brothers, neglected by their people, given grudging charity, taunted and scorned by other children. They are befriended only by the camp dogs. At last the boys, tired of the unkindness around them, go to the Above World, where they become the stars we call the Pleiades. Sun Man punishes the neglectful people with a drought, but he listens to the dogs' plea that it end when the animals, too, suffer. (The dogs become the small stars clustered around the Pleiades.) The retelling is spare and direct, the more affecting for its complete lack of sentimentality. There is an extensive list of sources and notes on both the story and on tipi-painting. These notes help readers to understand Blackfoot artistry and values, and add meaning to Goble's depiction. Unchanging in the bright, bold geometry of his instantly recognizable style, Goble's work here, as in the past, is notable both for its graphic design and for the narrative it adorns. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle