The Star Outside My Window
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning author of The Boy at the Back of the Class comes a middle grade novel about the power of hope to sustain even when tragedy strikes.
Ten-year-old Aniyah and her little brother Noah find themselves living in foster care after the sudden disappearance of their mum. With her life in disarray, Aniyah knows just one thing for sure: her mum isn't gone forever.
Aniyah believes that the people with the brightest hearts never truly disappear. They become stars. When scientists discover a new star acting strangely, Aniyah knows it's really her mum. To make sure everyone else knows, too, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime--one that involves breaking into the Royal Observatory of London, and meeting the biggest star in Hollywood.
This is an honest yet empathetic exploration of how people respond to difficult circumstances, told through the innocent voice of a ten-year-old girl.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sophomore novel by Ra f (The Boy at the Back of the Class), 10-year-old amateur star enthusiast Aniyah and her little brother, Noah, find themselves suddenly in foster care. Their Brazilian mother has been murdered after fleeing their abusive English father, and Aniyah believes that her mother has become a new physics-shattering star traveling right past Earth. Accompanied by Noah and fellow foster kids, determined, clever Aniyah races from her new home near Oxford to London, hoping to convince the Royal Observatory to name the historic star after her mother. Ra f doesn't sensationalize her characters' painful back-stories, instead focusing on their healing: Aniyah gradually recovers the memories she's repressed and learns that the way her father treated the family wasn't normal, and foster mother Mrs. Iwuchukwu models patient acceptance as she encourages Aniyah, who is selectively nonverbal following her mother's death, to speak. Humorous first-person narration and plot devices (squirrels unexpectedly play a pivotal role) balance the heavy subject matter, while back matter provides a list of constellations and resources for abuse survivors. While Aniyah's foster sister is a frustratingly clich d villain, the story's compassionate portrayal of young survivors more than makes up for its flaws. Ages 8 12.
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