When she turned ten, Aniyah made a wish on a star for her mum. The wish was for her mother, but during that same day, she and her brother Noah are taken from her home and driven far away and made to live in a foster home. The only silver lining is that the foster home is run by Mrs. Iwuchukwu who is one of the best motherly fiction character from the past few years in my opinion. She is firm yet fair, loving and open. This is a character that helps restore the image of foster carers as caring, responsible people when the primary image we receive from the media are ones who prey on children's weaknesses. Throughout the novel, Mrs. Iwuchukwu becomes a character I wanted to spend more time with and I wanted to learn as much as I could about her. Aniyah is obsessed with star hunting, so when she finds out that the Royal Observatory at Greenwich is holding a contest to name a new star, she knows that the star is connected to her mother and that it must be named after her. This is when she recruits the help of some of the foster children to embark on an adventure to travel to the Observatory to tell the judges her mother's story and why the star belongs to her. A truly devastating story that will wreck you as a reader. As Aniyah's story slowly unravels, we see the true desperation behind her attempt to get to the Observatory. We see how children being sent to foster homes cope on a daily basis, how children are so, so resilient when it comes to traumatic events and how powerful kindness and empathy can be. Another blockbuster from Onjali, this will be another book I'll need several copies of to keep the students happy, don't miss this amazing story.
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