Aniyah is a Star Hunter. She knows the other name and that adult Star Hunters prefer the term Astronomer, but she’s going to stick with Star Hunter.

Aniyah is 10 years old and her little brother Noah much younger. Their lives have changed a lot over the last week or so, as they now live with a lady named Mrs Iwuchukwu. There are also two boys named Ben and Travis, and a girl living there, and Aniyah soon learns she is now in foster care.

Along with Noah, they try to settle in to their new home, and Mrs Iwuchukwu is kind and patient with them. Aniyah knows their mum has gone and wonders if their dad is out there still looking for them? They had been playing hide and seek for a while, staying in “a hotel that wasn’t a hotel,” with mum, but then suddenly there was police and a lady in a black suit, and Aniyah can’t remember much else.

She has to be strong for Noah in this new place, as he has hardly stopped his hiccup crying, but Ben and Travis help by being kind and friendly. Another distraction is on the News stations and in the newspapers. An unknown star seems to have come from nowhere and is crossing through Earth’s skies. The astronomers of the world are excited and a competition has been set up to name this special star.

Aniyah is horrified. They can’t name this star. It already has a name – that star is her mum, and she is just letting them know she is watching over them. Aniyah knows she must do something about it.

From the author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, The Letter with the Golden Stamp and many more outstanding novels for children, this novel approaches the topic of domestic violence.

Along with this author’s other novels, the story is told in the point of view of a child, deftly and with authenticity. The truth of the main character’s recent past is terrible and (at present) forgotten by her, but while she tries to settle in to her foster home with her little brother, she reveals past abuses in her family home to the reader.

There was family trips and laughter and togetherness, but there was also rigid rules, loud noises and a father with ‘a switch’ that must not be flicked if more trouble was to be avoided. These clues to her past are expertly woven into the narrative as easily as talking about going to Disneyland – showing that the controlling factors of abuse and expected behaviours were so frequent, they are deemed normal to her and her small brother. Heartbreaking stuff.

The main character’s staunch belief in her mum being the star the world is talking about, takes her and her ‘brothers’ to sort out the confusion in its name.

The book opens with a gentle but clear warning from the author, to anyone who may be living with domestic violence – sending them to the back of the book with services and suggestions to help them.

The author’s own experiences within her extended family prompted her to write this book. 

Author – Onjali Q Raúf
Age – 9+

Find more reviews of this author’s books here

(2019, Hachette NZ, Family, Domestic Abuse, Anger, Switch, Control, Hiding, Women’s and Children’s Refuge, Hide and Seek, Foster Care, Foster Mum, Jealousy, Betrayal, Adventure, Journey, London, Astronomer, Star Hunter, Siblings, Responsibility, Observatory, Event, Naming Competition)