The Boy at the Back of the Class

Onjali Q. Rauf's The Boy at the Back of the Class is a funny, big-hearted story for 10 year olds about a new boy who won't speak, and four friends who are determined to change that.

What happens

Nobody has wanted the spare seat in the last row. Then, three weeks into term, Ahmet is given it. He doesn't talk. He doesn't smile. He disappears at every break, and nobody knows where.

The story is told by one of the four friends, nine and three-quarters, Tintin mad, allergic to dogs and completely set on being Ahmet's friend. So every day at the school gate there's a lemon sweet for him. Then a chocolate bar. Then an orange with a smiley face drawn on it (and a dinosaur sticker from Tom, which is a VERY big deal).

Meanwhile the playground rumours fly. He's dangerous. He's got a disease. He's a rich kid hiding from kidnappers. Then a grown-up at the gate says the words 'refugee kid', and none of the friends knows what that means.

The late-night chat at the kitchen table with Mum is one of the best things in the book. She explains, simply and honestly, about bombs and boats and people forced to leave everything behind. It's a lovely way in if your reader has seen the news and has questions of their own.

It's funny too. Josie chews her hair and can score from the other end of the field. Michael's glasses are always broken. Brendan the Bully tips over people's lunch trays. It's full of the real stuff of school.

What makes it work is that everything comes through a child's eyes. Grown-up prejudice (and there's some, from a sour-faced gran at the school gate) sounds even sillier when a nine-year-old is trying to make sense of it. Why would anyone be cross with a boy who's run away from bombs?

There's sadness here as well as fun. The narrator's dad died in a car crash a few years before the story starts, and Mum still can't bear to hear his old records. It's backstory rather than a twist, and it's handled very tenderly.

What to read next

If your reader loves this, The Star Outside My Window is also by Onjali Q. Rauf. Aniyah is ten, she's just arrived in a foster home with her little brother Noah, and she's determined to become a star hunter.