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English Cymraeg

Bobby Bains Plays a Blinder

by Bali Rai, illustrated by Daniel Duncan

Interest age: 9 to 11
Reading age: 8+

Published by Barrington Stoke, 2024

  • Dyslexia

About this book

Bobby loves football and so does Nana-ji, his grandad, even though they support different teams. Every Wednesday Nana-ji watches Bobby play for Wigby FC Juniors.

One day, Bobby is helping his mum at the community food bank, and an old man comes in. He also watches the local football teams, and Bobby chats to him. Trevor seems lonely, and he loves reggae music, like Nana-ji. So Bobby hatches a plan to get the two men to become friends – and it involves a strange kind of football! 

This heart-warming story of kindness and community is a delight. As a Sikh, helping others is part of Bobby’s religion, and his family of his single mother and Nana-ji is full of warmth.

Bali Rai expertly touches on poverty and on the principles Sikhs live by, interweaving these themes and observations into a contemporary, engaging story. Daniel Duncan’s black-and-white illustrations are full of expression and recognisable details. 

Ideal for reluctant readers, thick yellow paper ensures words and pictures don’t show through the pages and confuse the eye. A unique, dyslexia-friendly font makes reading easier and the story is specially edited to help minimise barriers to comprehension.

About the author

Bali Rai was born in 1971 and raised as a working class Punjabi in Leicester. He grew up in a deprived area of Leicester, a city which is almost unique in terms of cultural mix and his style of writing is firmly grounded in the reality that he has seen around him since he was a child. The senior school he attended was about 80% BAME - 20% white children in terms of ethnic makeup.

Bali Rai has been writing short stories and poetry since the age of eight. As a child he made up wild and exciting stories and his imagination has been vivid ever since. At school he excelled at English language and told his teachers that he would one day be a writer.

He left school with eight GCSE’s and English was always his favourite subject. After school he did three a-levels at a local sixth form - none of which was English Literature, which he now regrets. He went on to graduate from Southbank University in London with a 2:1 in politics and since then he has had various jobs in retail, cinema, and telesales and has kept a keen, almost obsessive, interest in current affairs.

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