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From Onjali Q. Rauf, the bestselling and award-winning author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, and award-winning illustrator Pippa Curnick , comes a moving picture book that helps young children understand and empathise with the refugee crisis, and shows the power that friendship, kindness and generosity can have. There''s a new girl in my class. She has eyes as wide and as golden as a tiger''s, skin as pale as a glass of milk, and hair as shiny as a mirror. I''d like to be her friend. But she never plays with me in the playground or makes sandcastles in the sandpit. She''s doesn''t even like Story Time. The cleverest people I know say that the new girl is sad because she had to leave her home, her family, her school, her toys, her books and all her friends too. But I''ve got an idea! There is something I can do to make her feel better when she''s missing everything she''s left behind ...
About the author
Onjali Q Raúf's first book, The Boy at the Back of the Class, was Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize in 2019, the Blue Peter Book Prize 2019 and has recieved many other accolades.
Raúf's second book, The Star Outside My Window, went on to win the Diversity Book Award for Children's Fiction (UK) 2020.
Her further fiction titles include: The Night Bus Hero, The Lion Above the Door, The Letter with the Golden Stamp and The Game I Will Never Forget as well as the fairy tale collection Where Magic Grows, the non-fiction title Hope on the Horizon, and the picture book The Girl at the Front of the Class.
In 2022, Raúf was recognised for her services to Literature and Women's Rights in the New Year Honours.
Pippa Curnick grew up in rural Essex and studied at Camberwell College of Art. She graduated from the University of Derby with a First Class degree in illustration. Pippa's picture book Lucie Goose was shortlisted for the Evening Standard's Oscar's First Book Prize. Her website is www.pippacurnick.com and you can follow her on Insta @pippa_curnick and on Twitter @PippaCurnick
