Aisha Bushby: Hello, my name is Aisha Bushby and I'm the author of A Pocketful of Stars.

So there were two different inspirations for a A Pocketful of Stars. The first one was dealing with a sick parent and grief that can come along with that. Because I thought it was important for both child and adult readers who've been through the same thing to realize that they're not alone. I think that's the one thing that when you're going through something difficult, you can feel that you're alone. And I hope that the book helps people realize that they're not.

And the other thing that inspired the book was my love for video games, particularly the fact that 50% of gamers are girls. But it's seen as a predominantly male dominated, kind of, creative hobby. And I wanted to show that girls can be just as good at playing video games.

And so the one thing I would really love kids to take away when they read a A Pocketful of Stars is to be proud of being yourself and not feel like you have to fit in with what everybody else is doing. Because that's something that Safiya does, and it's something I really struggle to do at her age, and I'm still learning to do at my age. That's what I hope people take away from it.

Whenever I write a new story, I always put together, kind of, a patchwork of different ideas, which I collect along the way, and that comes up with the story. But one thing that really drives me is the setting of my story. So in a A Pocketful of Stars, it was the house that Safiya's mom grew up in, and that was a real, kind of, starting off point for the magic of the world. And everything was built around that.

Whenever I write stories, I like to mix up heart and magic, but the heart side of my story was inspired by one of my favorite authors who is British author called Jacqueline Wilson. And the one book that I remember growing up was a book called The Illustrated Mum.

And now I'd like to read aloud from a A Pocketful of Stars. So this is chapter four, where Safiya first enters a strange new world that isn't very familiar to her.

"Wake up," something whispers into the darkness. "Safiya, wake up."

When I next open my eyes, I'm lying on my back staring up at the sky. The stars wink at me, brighter than I've seen them before. There are thousands of them, millions, coating the land like a great big blanket. The moon greets me shyly in a crescent wave. I sit up. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust, for me to get my bearings. I'm in some sort of courtyard. It's hot, hotter than any weather I've known, like opening the oven door just after you've baked something delicious. I almost expect my glasses to fog. The smells are wild and sweet. Wood, rose, maybe, and orange. I look up to see an enormous house staring back at me.

Where am I? Silver branches scale the house walls covering almost every inch of it. They bleed into the windows and out of the doors. They sway like blades of grass in the breeze and tap at the glass of the windows as if asking to be let in, except there is no wind. The night is as dry as lavender sprigs. Looking closer, I can see that the branches are as thick as snakes with leaves like gnarled fingers protruding from them. They reach out for me, and that's when I see they're not swaying at all but wriggling like little worms. I swear I can hear them whisper my name.

"Safiya," they hiss. "Safiya, welcome."

I shudder, I step back and look around me. This is the biggest house I've ever seen, about the size of the apartment building mum lives in. There's a set of swings to the right of me, a couple of cars parked in front of it, and a great big iron gate to my left leading out onto the road. How did I get here?