The Girl at the Front of the Class

This is a picture book written from the point of view of Adam, a kind boy aged around 5 or 6 who gets a new classmate. She seems so sad and never joins in playing. The boy notices her drawings look scary and in every picture there is a girl crying. Noone has told him anything about the girl, so he does some asking around of adults, including his teacher and parents, and discovers the girl is sad because she had to leave her home, her family, her friends and everything she owned behind in another country. So the boy has an idea to make a new story just for the girl, Layla, in which they are friends.  

It’s a beautiful story of kindness and welcoming; and at the back it has five practical ideas on how to welcome refugee children, including learning how to pronounce their name, smiling and saying hello every day. War and violence are not directly mentioned but the book could spark questions on these and why children might need to flee. This book is a must-have for every school library and would be great to read aloud in reception or year one story time.This is the picture book counterpart to Onjali Q Raúf’s famous middle-grade book The Boy at the Back of the Class which older children could move onto.