<p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">There used to be an empty chair at the back of my class, but now a new boy called Ahmet is sitting in it.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">He^s nine years old (just like me), but he^s very strange. He never talks and never smiles and doesn^t like sweets - not even lemon sherbets, which are my favourite!</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">But then I learned the truth: Ahmet really isn^t very strange at all. He^s a refugee who^s run away from a War. A real one. With bombs and fires and bullies that hurt people. And the more I find out about him, the more I want to help.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">That^s where my best friends Josie, Michael and Tom come in. Because you see, together we^ve come up with a plan. . .</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Google Sans", sans-serif;"><br></span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><strong style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Google Sans", sans-serif;">About the Author</span></strong><br></p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Onjali Q. Raúf 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. In her spare time she delivers emergency aid convoys for refugee families surviving in Calais and Dunkirk, and supports interfaith projects.</p><p class="p2" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 14px;"><br></p><p class="p1" style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">Her first novel, The Boy at the Back of the Class, won the Waterstone^s Children^s Prize and The Blue Peter Award. Her second book, The Star Outside My Window, published in October 2019 and she has written a 2020 World Book Day title that^s a follow up to The Boy at the Back of the Class called The Day We Met the Queen.</p>