People Like Stars

Twelve-year-old Ayrton and his mum have recently moved back to the area they lived in when he was a baby. It is the same 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 hugely, understandably, and 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 briefly 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—so Ayrton's mother can get answers to the questions that torment her and hopefully find peace and let him live a more free life.

People Like Stars by Patrice Lawrence explores themes of family, identity, and the quest for freedom and understanding.