Selected for The Pleasure List 2026 - Hay Festival's crowd-sourced list of the 39 most unputdownable books ever
'Playful, obstinate and courageously humorous ... hilarious and later heartbreaking' Guardian
'Sweet, funny, highly inventive' Yorkshire Post
The poignant but funny tale of a young refugee, from acclaimed storyteller Benjamin Zephaniah, now marking its 25th anniversary
Acclaimed performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah's honest, wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published.
Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war, and Alem is welcome in neither place.
So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father – until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path...
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Very accessible and easy to read; perfect for reading for pleasure and classroom discussion.
Brilliantly written and with a real ear for dialogue, fans of Angie Thomas and Malorie Blackman will love Benjamin Zephaniah's novels for young adult readers:
Refugee Boy
Face
Gangsta Rap
Teacher's Dead
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Benjamin Zephaniah is probably one of the most high-profile international authors writing today, with an enormous breadth of appeal, equally popular with adults and children. Well known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults and groundbreaking performance poetry for children, Benjamin has also written several urban novels for teenagers.
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