We are delighted to welcome Onjali Q Rauf to the blog to celebrate the publication of her new novel The Night Bus Hero and to discuss her writing.  Onjali has won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, a Blue Peter Book Award and many more, she was selected as one of the World Book Day £1 book titles this year.  Onjali’s books have quickly become renowned for trademark blend of humour and the understated ways in which they broach complex social themes.

Please can you introduce yourself?

Hi, my name is Onjali Rauf, and I’m a women’s and refugees rights activist, as well as (by some wonderful miracle), a children’s author. My first two books, The Boy at the Back of the Class, and The Star Outside My Window hit on issues very close to my heart - the refugee crisis currently unfolding in the world; and tackling all forms of domestic violence actioned against women and children. But at their heart, they are also adventure stories and feature characters based on people I know and love in the real world, and want others to know and love too. I love reading journey-based books and meeting phenomenal people through them, so as a writer, I guess I’m naturally inclined to wanting to go on an adventure too.

Congratulations on the publication of The Night Bus Hero please could you tell us about it and about Hector its slightly unlikely hero?

Thank you so much. The Night Bus Hero is really a story of a bully - Hector, and his encountering of a homeless man named Thomas, who lives in the local park. It’s not a nice encounter - and leads to all kinds of mischief and revelations, whilst across London, at the exact same time, lots of important pieces of public art are being stolen by seemingly invisible thieves. The blame for those thefts are being placed on the homeless communities - which is where Hector and Thomas come in… IF they can stop hating each other long enough that is. They’re an unlikely pair of possible heroes, but you have to read the book to find out if they actually turn that possibility into a reality!

The Night Bus Hero continues your tradition of really shining a light on the underdog or the outsider exploring the story and motivations behind bullies and the homeless.  How important is it that young minds are exposed to these stories?

I think young minds are exposed to underdog and outsider stories through pretty much all the stories that have been written from them, past and present - and even the most fantastical stories explore real issues of loss, death, trauma, bullying, loneliness and injustice. Whether that’s our fairy tales or Harry Potter or Paddington Bear. The Night Bus Hero is no different in that respect and is following that time-honoured tradition of presenting issues children are already acutely aware of and constantly exposed to, through a new story. It’s not the exposing that’s just important - the gifting of a safe space and opportunity to explore those issues and get discussions going is crucial. So I’m hoping the story will help create just that.

Your first book, The Boy at the Back of the Class was incredibly successful winning both the Waterstones Children Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award.  The book itself was based around some of the work you do with refugees, can you tell us more about this?

Absolutely… I have been heading out to help frontline refugee aid teams in Calais and Dunkirk in my spare time since 2015, and have had the huge honour of meeting hundreds of not only refugee families and children trying their best to survive in dire situations, but heart-stoppingly wonderful volunteers who give their hearts and lives over to aiding those that are being ignored by our world leaders. The Boy at the Back of the Class is dedicated to a baby I met in 2016 named Raehan, and I am so proud to say that the book and my attempts to help are now linked forever (a percentage of all royalties from the books now go into O’s Refugee Aid Team), and will hopefully go on helping other babies like Raehan and their families not just in France, but in Greece too. I never went out to the refugee camps thinking I would write a story about it one day, but I am deeply thankful that Baby Raehan inspired me to do so.

You explore often quite sophisticated and emotionally challenging subjects are there any considerations you have to make when framing these for young people?

Yes, absolutely. My editor, Lena McCauley is brilliant at pulling me back from story pathways that might be just a little ‘too much’ for young hearts to take, and making sure that we lighten some of the darker, sadder moments of a story, with a little humour or explanation. So the stories are always carefully read and proofread time and time again, to ensure nothing is too overwhelmingly painful, even when the issue being discussed, has the potential to be.

Your work has been selected for the Empathy Reads list, what roles do you think books and stories are able to play in helping to engender more empathic understanding?

An eternal one. Stories - no matter what form, be it in film form, or in Manga form, or in poetry and song form, are the most powerful stimulations we can possess, create or encounter, in helping all of us break out of our own bubbles, and think about the world or an issue from a different perspective. Right now, we’re seeing the wider repercussions of what happens when stories are eradicated, ignored, hidden away or changed to fit an agenda, and the glaring voids of empathy this creates. So stories are the best, most brilliant tools to widen worlds, and help people be brave enough to deeply understand - and respect -  someone else’s lived experience in the world.

The Day We Met the Queen was one of the World Book Day titles this year, how did it feel to be one of this year's authors and how easy was it returning to the world of Ahmet and friends?

I lived for World Book Day at school - and many a voucher was ‘bought’ with the contents of my lunchbox! It was surreal to be asked to contribute a story, and even more so to see the picture of the cover on a McDonalds Happy Meal box! It was an honour to be a part of it, and writing the story was a joy. I didn’t realise how much I had missed Ahmet and his best buddies until I began writing it, and the joy of it made it a much easier affair than I thought it would be.

Can you let us know what is next for you?

Sleep, lots of chai, and trying to keep up with all my brilliant teams… Oh! And moving onto book baby four of course!