Year 5: The Boy At The Back Of The Class

By Onjali Q. Rauf

“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 even like sweets—not even lemon sherbets, which are my favourite!

But then I learned the truth: Ahmet isn’t strange at all. He’s a refugee who’s run away from a war. A real one.

With bombs and fires and people trying to kill him.

The more I find out about him, the more I want to help. That’s where my best friends come in. Together we’ve come up with a plan.

Elijah: “I’m excited to see what happens to Solomon as the story progresses”.

Eliza: “I loved that it gives us more information about the lives of refugee children

Ellie: “I like stories that are set in different cultures and countries. It is interesting finding out about different places and people”.