Author: Onjali Q Raúf
Publisher: Orion Children’s Books
Details: 256pp, £6.99, paperback
ISBN: 9781510105010
The Boy at the Back of the Class tells the story of Ahmet, a boy joining a new school. Although that sounds routine or commonplace, right from the start, a group of friends can tell that there is something different about him. Ahmet doesn’t talk to anyone. He doesn’t look at anyone. And where does he go all on his own at lunchtime? As the group gradually piece together the new arrival’s story, they discover that he is a refugee. This leads them to question what exactly a refugee is, how he came to be at their school and how they can become friends with him when he seemingly won’t talk to them.
This book centres on one of the huge global issues of our time: the refugee crisis. It does so with enormous sensitivity and even humour. One of the successes of this book is that, while it doesn’t shy away from the trauma of the crisis, it makes it accessible to the young reader. It does this through its characters - the children around Ahmet - who are always asking questions to try to understand the world around them. For example, the author tackles people’s attitudes toward refugees throughout the book. This is mostly done via children relaying and querying what they have heard adults saying to them. It is this questioning, and the conversations that follow, that really help the reader to ask their own questions about refugees and, through that, to begin to form their own opinions.
The refugee crisis is something that continues to make headlines and it is affecting families all over the globe, including many in the UK. This book’s greatest strength is how it conveys the emotive nature of its main theme in a way that opens up conversations instead of shutting them down. The Boy at the Back of the Class is not only a well-written book that begs the reader to keep reading, but also one that opens up a dialogue that we need to be having with our young people.
Samantha Soper is a Year 3 class teacher at Wellsprings Primary School in Taunton
Pupil reviews
‘It’s about a boy who’s separated from his family’
This book is about a refugee boy who has been separated from his family and a group of friends who are determined to give a letter to the Queen to get his family back.
Mia C, Year 6
‘No one else will be allowed into the country’
This is a good book about a boy who meets a refugee child. He wants to help him find his family. They bring him treats after school. The friends find out that the gates are closing and that no one else will be allowed into the country. The friends ask the Queen to keep the gates open…
Keely, Year 5
‘He isn’t the person they all think he is going to be’
I like how the friends try to help Ahmet. He isn’t the person they all think he is going to be. It teaches us a life lesson: that we don’t have to make up what people are. It helps us to understand a refugee’s experience.
Samantha and Summer, Year 5
If you or your class would like to write a review, please contact sarah.cunnane@tes.com
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