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thelibraryofethos 's review for:
The Boy At the Back of the Class
by Onjali Q. Raúf
I am a big fan of this book.
I only discovered it because it was shortlisted for the Concorde Book Awards 2020. I had never heard of the author before (not surprising, as this is her first book) and the cover didn't particularly appeal to me at first.
Starting the book, I was surprised how young the narrator's perspective is. The main character is 9 3/4 years old. Eventually I settled into the way of writing and then the story was easy to enjoy. In some ways, this kind of story is best told from a child's point of view.
To be honest, the story-line was basic. The world building, underdeveloped. But despite these factors, this is a really important book that more children need to be reading.
The bottom line is: the book had everything it needed. Our characters are characterised enough to be loved or, in some cases, despised. The plot is exciting enough to hold your attention. And thanks to the author's simplistic style of writing, the reader has nothing else to focus on but the real issue: the very current refugee crisis.
This is of course a very sensitive subject, but the book deals with it in such a way that helps children to understand enough of what is going on, but not so much that it is overly distressing. Some parts of the book children may find to be surprising, but anything that could be shocking is dealt with gently, slowly.
The main characters are wonderful. They really carry the story. All these nine-year-olds with so much love and kindness in their hearts. There's lots of little ideas in this story, how a child could help a new student to feel welcomed into their class, how to be kind to children who don't speak the same language as you, etc. It's wonderful how the book portrays kindness to strangers in such a positive light. Gossiping, bullying, racism and partiality are all dealt with subtly, in a way that children will understand that these things are negative and not kind.
I especially liked the little facts and notes at the end of the book. They add the real side to the story.
This is an important book for children to read. Actually, scrap that; all of us should be reading this.
I only discovered it because it was shortlisted for the Concorde Book Awards 2020. I had never heard of the author before (not surprising, as this is her first book) and the cover didn't particularly appeal to me at first.
Starting the book, I was surprised how young the narrator's perspective is. The main character is 9 3/4 years old. Eventually I settled into the way of writing and then the story was easy to enjoy. In some ways, this kind of story is best told from a child's point of view.
To be honest, the story-line was basic. The world building, underdeveloped. But despite these factors, this is a really important book that more children need to be reading.
The bottom line is: the book had everything it needed. Our characters are characterised enough to be loved or, in some cases, despised. The plot is exciting enough to hold your attention. And thanks to the author's simplistic style of writing, the reader has nothing else to focus on but the real issue: the very current refugee crisis.
This is of course a very sensitive subject, but the book deals with it in such a way that helps children to understand enough of what is going on, but not so much that it is overly distressing. Some parts of the book children may find to be surprising, but anything that could be shocking is dealt with gently, slowly.
The main characters are wonderful. They really carry the story. All these nine-year-olds with so much love and kindness in their hearts. There's lots of little ideas in this story, how a child could help a new student to feel welcomed into their class, how to be kind to children who don't speak the same language as you, etc. It's wonderful how the book portrays kindness to strangers in such a positive light. Gossiping, bullying, racism and partiality are all dealt with subtly, in a way that children will understand that these things are negative and not kind.
I especially liked the little facts and notes at the end of the book. They add the real side to the story.
This is an important book for children to read. Actually, scrap that; all of us should be reading this.