Where I Belong

by Gillian Cross

Freya's parents work in fashion and photography. She shuttles between their homes, never feeling that she really matters, loathing the frivolity of frocks.

Khadija is uprooted from her nomadic life in Somalia to be educated in England. When her brother is kidnapped, she decides to accept the modelling job Freya's mum offers her. Abdi, her surrogate brother, vows to help her raise the ransom.

This gripping story of fashion and war, bandits and paparazzi, is told through the voices of Freya, Khadija and Abdi. All three are searching for their place in the world.

It's a quest for identity, told at a breathtaking pace, contrasting the dusty desert of rural Somalia with the grey concrete of an English city.

Publisher: Oxford Children's Books

Gillian Cross

Gillian Cross has been writing children's books for over twenty years. Before that she took English degrees at Oxford and Sussex Universities, and she had various jobs including working in a bakery and being an assistant to a Member of Parliament.

She is married with four children, and lives in Dorset. Her hobbies include orienteering and playing the piano. She won the Carnegie Medal for Wolf and the Smarties Prize and the Whitbread Children's Novel Award for The Great Elephant Chase.

Gillian Cross