The Girl at the Front of the Class

(Hardback)

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Description

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, 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.

There's a new girl in my class. She has eyes as wide and as golden as a tiger's, a face as pale as a glass of milk, and hair as shiny as a mirror. I'd like to be her friend. But she never wants to play with me in the playground or makes sandcastles in the sandpit.

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 a plan! There is something I can do to make her feel better when she's missing everything she's left behind . . .

Author Bio

Onjali Q. Rauf (Author)

Onjali Q. Rauf is the founder of Making Herstory, an organisation mobilising men, women and children from all walks of life to tackle the abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the UK and beyond. She is also the founder of O's Refugee Aid Team, which provides support for refugee families surviving in Calais and Dunkirk.

Onjali Q. Rauf is a multi-award-winning children's author and women's and refugee human rights activist. She is the founder and CEO of Making Herstory which works to end the abuse, enslavement and trafficking of women and girls in the UK, and O's Refugee Aid Team which mobilises aid convoys and funds to help frontline refugee response teams across northern France and beyond. She is the author of Sunday Times bestseller, The Boy at the Back of the Class, which won the Blue Peter Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2019, the Sakura Medal of Japan in 2020 and the Prix Janusz Korczak Prize in 2022 amongst others. Her follow-up stories include The Star Outside My Window, The Night Bus Hero, The Great Food Bank Heist, The Lion Above the Door, a non-fiction title, Hope on the Horizon, and most recently, Where Magic Grows: a book of seven original fairy tales inspired by her travels and best-loved sayings. She was awarded an MBE in 2022 for her services to women's rights and children's literature, and in 2023, was recipient of the NEU Fred and Anne Jarvis Award for services to education and her humanitarian works.

Onjali is also a Patron of VIP Reading, Facefront Theatre, and NIA Women; an Ambassador for Walk With Amal, and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2's Pause for Thought. An alumnus of the Cambridge University Senior Faith in Leadership programme, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 most influential women from around the world in 2019. Her first children's play, The Hero Next Door, was staged and toured in England and Wales in 2023. An adaptation of The Boy at the Back of the Class for the stage launches at London's Rose Theatre in February 2024, and will be touring across England until June 2024.

Twitter: @OnjaliRauf / @MakeHerstory1 / @O_Refugee

Website: www.onjaliqrauf.org

Pippa Curnick (Illustrator)

Pippa Curnick grew up in rural Essex and studied at Camberwell College of Art. She graduated from the University of Derby with a First Class degree in illustration. Pippa's picture book Lucie Goose was shortlisted for the Evening Standard's Oscar's First Book Prize. Her website is www.pippacurnick.com and you can follow her on Insta @pippa_curnick and on Twitter @PippaCurnick