There was a book I read around the early 2000s, and from the writing I think it would have been published around the late 90s to early 00s. I think I read it from around 2006-2010? The book is set in both Australia and England so it's likely the author might be Australian, English, from New Zealand etc.
The plot in order from what I can remember is a young boy, child to teenage-ish? wakes up in Scotland or England (he gets to England eventually, I think the characters in the beginning have Scottish accents) in the late 1700's and he doesn't remember how he got there or who he is. A couple who owns a farm find him and bring him in and raise him. It then tells of his childhood memories there with his friends and how he used to pick blue berries, but as the years went on all his friends would age except him, his body just stayed the same. He becomes an outcast and his guardians realise they need to keep him a secret to not draw attention. He sees his parents age and eventually die, and leaves the farm open to let all the farm animals go and he leaves himself.
He ends up in England and steals some bread, but he gets caught and becomes a convict and eventually sent to Australia so this part would be around 1788?. He's one of the fewer younger people on the boat and he talks to the other adult convicts and befriends the convict who sleeps near him. When him and the other convicts are receiving rations he could mind control/telepathically convince the person handing out food to give him more rations than anybody else, which everyone despises him for and he feels guilty. This is the only part I remember with his mind abilities but I'm sure it's brought up again.
After that I can't remember until it's more modern times, and while he's living in modern Australia people notice that he's a child alone. One time people were trying to photograph him to let people know that he was a missing child but as the photo was taken his facial features morph and change completely until he is unrecognisable from the picture.
He is eventually taken in by an older lady who thinks that he is her son/grandson and he lives with her while she looks after him. He was very happy with her but eventually she finds out that he isn't her son/grandson and that they are supposed to be dead, and she asks him who he is. He escapes from there.
He was in an orphanage for a while I think? Because he gets taken in by a mother, who I think might be single or recently divorced? She might have other children but I know for sure she had a daughter who was physically the same age as the main character. The girl is the typical quirky character who likes weird things; I'm not sure if she likes or dislikes him at first but later on they become good friends/a couple? The main character sometimes details about weird dreams he has where he's in a tree on an unfamiliar planet with aliens who are all connected to each other and they are trying to speak to him. I think he might have other dreams but that's the main one I remember.
The book ends when an alien spaceship comes to him at night, and they are the same aliens from his dreams. They are described as being all connected to each other by their arms, and they have no mouths but he can hear them telepathically. They tell him that he was one of them but he fell out of their spaceship at the beginning of the story, and his species is able to take on different forms to protect themselves, explaining why he never ages as he isn't human. They ask him to come back with them but he tells them that he's finally found a family he fits in with and is happy. They allow it and grant him a real human body and leave. The book ends with him happy because he discovers he's gotten a pimple, showing that he's finally aging.
- The cover that this book had was a drawing of the boy with two other characters, a boy he is friends with and the girl that he lives with in the story. He's walking, but front facing, and the drawing was kinda weird looking; I think they had weird giant eyes if that helps?
- I don't think the book could have been too long, I remember it not being that big.
- Another maybe significant detail? I got the book with a cereal box as a promotion, although I can't really find anything when I search for Australian cereal boxes that came with a kids book.
