The Star Outside My Window

November 15, 2020
A game of hide-and-seek ends with London siblings in foster care. Ten-year-old Aniyah hasn't spoken since arriving at the Oxford home of her new foster mother, Mrs. Iwuchukwu, along with her 5-year-old brother, Noah, following the death of their mother. It all started with another of Mum's "games," this time hiding from Dad in a shelter, or "hotel-that-wasn't-really-a-hotel." Aniyah calls herself a star hunter and believes Mum is now watching over them as a star, so after hearing about a recently located star passing close to Earth and the Royal Observatory Greenwich's competition to name it, Aniyah wants to ensure the scientists will accurately recognize it as her Mum, Isabella. With help from her foster siblings and her firm commitment to her mother, Aniyah begins to plot. Along the way, Aniyah's history emerges, revealing that the paternal abuse she thought was simply normal life was in fact not normal at all and had everything to do with Mum's death. This deeply moving narrative tackles the lasting traumatic impact of abuse on children and the troubling ways society denies victims' experiences until it's too late. Ra�f, founder of the anti-trafficking and abuse nonprofit Making Herstory, brings to life an age-appropriate narrative about painful topics, giving her characters power and agency in weaving together their stories of survival. Extensive backmatter offers context and resources. Aniyah and Noah's mother was from Brazil, and her father is English; there is diversity among the rest of the cast. Empowering. (Fiction. 8-13)

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November 30, 2020
In this sophomore novel by Raúf (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. Raúf 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 clichéd villain, the story’s compassionate portrayal of young survivors more than makes up for its flaws. Ages 8–12.

December 1, 2020

Gr 3-7-Ra�f (The Boy at the Back of the Class) returns with another story featuring a band of children undertaking a quixotic mission in tragic circumstances. Ten-year-old Aniyah and her little brother, Noah, are in foster care after fleeing with their mother from their abusive father. Traumatized by the outcome when their father finds them, Aniyah believes that her mother has been turned into a star and lo! A new star has appeared in the sky, skirting Earth's atmosphere and baffling scientists. An astronomical naming competition is announced, and Aniyah teams up with Noah and her two new foster brothers to travel across southeast England to prevent the Royal Observatory from giving her star-mother the wrong name. They make an unspecifically diverse band: Aniyah describes her own brown skin, and one boy shares the same skin color as their presumably Nigerian-British foster mother, Mrs. Iwuchukwu. Aniyah's naivete strains credulity, as she appears to believe that their father's violent episodes were him "moving furniture," their mother regularly got injured helping him, and she has now literally become a star defying the laws of physics. But the novel expects that readers of a similar age will see through these euphemisms and understand that Aniyah's father abused and eventually murdered his wife. Ra�f depicts a simplistic moral landscape-the cartoon villainy of a foster sister persists until the moment she becomes kind-and everyone else operates with good intentions throughout. The quest to the observatory feels like a stand-in for Aniyah processing her trauma, but the novel doesn't quite succeed in depicting much psychological nuance for her or any of her unfailingly kind companions. VERDICT Middle grade readers who enjoy moral certitude and implausible, heartfelt adventures will appreciate Ra�f's well-intentioned effort to address the issue of domestic violence.-Robbin E. Friedman, Chappaqua Lib., NY

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