You are pre-ordering a specially discounted bundle of books by Onjali Rauf, who your child will be meeting on Monday 16 June at Woodmansterne. When ordering please use the notes section to write your child's full name and class. This will ensure your child receives their signed book on the day.
The Boy at the Back of the Class
Told with heart and humour, The Boy at the Back of the Class is a child's perspective on the refugee crisis, highlighting the importance of friendship and kindness in a world that doesn't always make sense. There used to be an empty chair at the back of my class, but now a new boy called Ahmet is sitting in it. He's nine years old (just like me), but he's very strange.
He never talks and never smiles and doesn't like sweets - not even lemon sherbets, which are my favourite! But then I learned the truth: Ahmet really isn't very strange at all. He's a refugee who's run away from a War. A real one.
With bombs and fires and bullies that hurt people. And the more I find out about him, the more I want to help. That's where my best friends Josie, Michael and Tom come in.
Because you see, together we've come up with a plan. . .
The Girl at the Front of the Class
From Onjali Q. Rauf, the bestselling and award-winning author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, and award-winning illustrator Pippa Curnick, comes a moving picture book that helps young children understand and empathise with the refugee crisis, and shows the power that friendship, kindness and generosity can have.
There's a new girl in my class. She has eyes as wide and as golden as a tiger's, skin as pale as a glass of milk, and hair as shiny as a mirror. I'd like to be her friend. But she never plays with me in the playground or makes sandcastles in the sandpit. She's doesn't even like Story Time.
The cleverest people I know say that the new girl is sad because she had to leave her home, her family, her school, her toys, her books and all her friends too.
But I've got an idea! There is something I can do to make her feel better when she's missing everything she's left behind ...
The Night Bus Hero
'The boy's an absolute menace.'
'He's a bully. A lost cause!'
'Why can't he be more like his sister?'
'I've been getting into trouble for as long I can remember. Usually I don't mind - some of my best, most brilliant ideas have come from sitting in detention. But recently it feels like no one believes me about anything - even when I'm telling the truth! Everyone thinks I'm just a bully. They don't believe I could be a hero. But I'm going to prove them all wrong...'
Meet Hector: a bully whose dastardly antics spiral out of control when, after school one day, he decides to bully a homeless man in the local park.
But as London's most famous statues and emblems go missing and its homeless communities are pointed to as the thieves, has Hector managed to pick on the leader of them all? And if so, what can he do in a world that won't believe a word he says?
Written in lockdown when - for the first time in history - London's homeless community were gifted shelter, The Night Bus Hero explores themes of bullying and homelessness, and the potential everyone has to change for the good.
The Letter with the Golden Stamp
'I can't remember how old I was when I first started collecting stamps. But I've got a whole shoebox full of them now.
Mam used to help me collect them ... Before she got so ill that she lost her job, her friends...everything.
Now it's my job to take care of her and protect her - and my little brother and sister too. But to do that, I have to make Mam a Secret. A secret no-one can ever find out about. Not even my best friends at school, or Mo, our postman.
Or the stranger living in the house across the street. The one no-one has seen, but who I know is spying on us.
The one I think might be Them...'
Deep in the heart of Swansea, Wales, lives a small girl with some big secrets to keep. Secrets that make her one of the best actresses on the planet - because no-one would ever think that, away from school, Audrey is the sole carer for her increasingly sick mam and her two younger siblings ... or a seasoned thief.
With her worlds threatened by the arrival of a mysterious, invisible neighbour, behind whose closed curtains and shut front door may lie a spy, Audrey must take matters into her own hands to save her family.
Inspired by her beloved collection of stamps, her friendly neighbourhood postman (and fellow stamp collector), and her two best friends, off Audrey must go: on an adventure that will lead her to places - and hearts - she never knew existed.
Celebrating the hidden army of Young Carers daily keeping their loved ones alive behind closed doors, and the everyday s/heroes that surround them, The Letter with the Golden Stamp delves into the fears and hopes of Young Carers everywhere, and the invisible sources of kindness knocking on all our doors.
The Lion Above the Door
Dad tells me it's because we're 'special'.
But if we're so special, how come nobody ever looks like us in the books at school? Not even the books about world wars ...'
As the only Singaporean boy not just in his school, but in the tiny English he calls home too, Leo witnesses - and feels - the impacts of racism every day. But on a class trip to a nearby cathedral, Leo's attention is drawn to a marble slab high above the doors of the hall. Right there, bang in the middle of a list of WWII war heroes, Leo finds himself staring at something incredible: his own name.
Desperate to know who this other Leo was, and with Sangeeta asking why women are missing from the history books too, the two friends embark on an epic search.
One that will help uncover missing s/heroes from the past, who each deserve to take their rightful place in the pages of history.
Touching on themes of historical racisms and eradications, The Lion Above the Door shines a light on the millions of s/heroes still missing from our history books, and the power that lies in all of us to rectify past wrongs.
- onjali rauf woodmansterne
Tags: