People Like Stars

Multi-award-winning Patrice Lawrence's first contemporary middle grade novel is a page-turning mystery and exploration of fractured families, long-buried secrets and the power of friendship, told with warmth and compassion. 12 year old Ayrton and his mum have recently moved back to the area they lived in when he was a baby the area they fled after a local woman stole him away from Mum when she was out shopping, thankfully returning him after only a short time had passed. Mum is suffocatingly over-protective of Ayrton, who just wants to be a normal boy. At his new school, he discovers that his new friend Stanley is linked to him in an astonishing way: Stanley's grandma was the woman who took Ayrton while his mum's back was turned. She became estranged from her own family because of her actions and Stanley has never known her. Together the boys decide to track down the grandma now a famous artist with the Banksy-style pseudonym Vixen but will Ayrton's mother can get answers to the questions that torment her, and will Ayrton be able to live a more free life? Stunning storytelling by turns powerful and witty from an exceptional writer for young people A page-turning mystery with real depth An exploration of fractured families, long-buried secrets and the power of friendship, told with warmth and compassion.