Book Review: The Star Outside My Window by Onjali Q. Rauf

 

Aniyah wants to be a star hunter (an astronomer) and what better way to explore her passion than to prove that the strange star in the sky is actually her mother. Follow Aniyah and her brother, Noah, as they work to uncover the truth, but it may be more than they bargained for.

This book is bursting with representation from the names of characters to their experiences and jobs. Aniyah and her brother Noah are in the foster system and the sense of impermanence they feel can be noticed in how they approach many of the early situations. The sense of having to learn the way a new home works is something many readers do not understand and Rauf is artful in portraying some of the symptoms of trauma in young children   One of the young boys in the foster home has a stutter, another wets the bed. The setting of the story is beautiful and the reader feels transported, as if they are standing under the sky itself looking at the stars with Aniyah. The use of pronouns such as "mum" may throw some young readers who are not familiar with the term but the sense of adventure will have them clamoring to look into the places mentioned in the book. Finding answers and closure can be universal. Caution should be taken, this book does discuss domestic violence and though portrayed respectfully could be triggering or upsetting to some readers. This story is a beautiful representation of the journey between loss and hope.

Book Information:

Rauf, O. (2019). THE STAR OUTSIDE MY WINDOW. New York: Delacorte Press. ISBN 9780593302279

What Next?

Read The Boy at the Back of the Class also by Rauf.