The Star Outside My Window: Onjali Q. Rauf

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A ‘worry box’ would also be good if children had any personal worries that they didn’t want to discuss as a class, the teacher could be made aware and speak to the child individually. Though what has happened with Aniyah's parents can be inferred by adult readers fairly early on, it is only as the novel ends that her innocent perspective begins to falter. Aniyah is a little 10 year old girl who finds herself, along with her 5 year old brother Noah, in foster care. I tend to prefer third person books over first person, but here first person was used to devastating effect in a way that I don’t think could have been achieved with third person. Her 2021 Barrington Stoke publication, The Great (Food) Bank Heist (illustrations by Elisa Paganelli), was a child's perspective on food poverty in the UK.

They would also only drop off a case of books and leave us to run it – it was so lovely to have you on hand to chat to the children and recommend them books, as well as the small (but appreciated! With the help of her foster brothers Travis and Ben, they hatch a plan to get to the observatory in London in time to make sure the star gets her mother’s name. One of the things that amazes me about children is their resilience - no matter what they've gone through, they always seem to have this ability to bounce back. And for the children experiencing it at home who don't know who to turn to or what the consequences might be if they speak out, stories like Onjali's can be a beacon of light. 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.

Throughout the novel, Aniyah is obsessed with the stars and is set on becoming a Star Hunter (that's an astronomer in boring adult-speak) when she grows up.

But after learning that Ahmet fled a Very Real War and was separated from his family along the way, a determined group of his classmates bands together to concoct the Greatest Idea in the World--a magnificent plan to reunite Ahmet with his loved ones. Children from all backgrounds need to see their lives reflected in the literature they read and it's important that this representation is more than just surface-level.The story is told from the perspective of ten-year-old Aniyah, who has recently been put into foster care with her brother Noah. Her first novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class, won the Waterstone's Children's Prize and The Blue Peter Award.

They have a computer, bikes, and a mistrust of the new foster children that could prove dangerous to their mission. There's more of this at the end of the book where readers get a description of different constellations and the stories behind them (each chapter header features an illustration of a different constellation and they're all explained at the back of the book). In addition to writing for publications such as The Guardian, [22] Raúf is also a contributor to the BBC Radio 2 program Pause For Thought. 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.

Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.

The serious undertone of domestic violence behind the children being in foster care remains throughout but whilst it does, it’s carefully written and not the centre of the story. Aniyah and her little brother Noah are placed in foster care with Mrs Iwuchukwu, who is a ray of sunshine in the kids lives, kind, fair and loving! I hope that no child reading The Star Outside My Window ever has to use that contact information but it's comforting to know that they have access to help and support should they ever need it.Raúf takes the delicate subject of domestic violence, and handles it with all the sensitivity, warmth and sincerity that it needs. Iwuchukwu models patient acceptance as she encourages Aniyah, who is selectively nonverbal following her mother’s death, to speak. I was completely caught up in Aniyah's interpretation of events and didn't get the full picture until the last chapter- just before Aniyah got it herself. Raúf doesn’t sensationalize her characters’ painful back-stories, instead focusing on their healing. Of all the children's books I've read, The Star Outside My Window has without question been the trickiest to review.