We are delighted to welcome Fen Coles and Catherine Barter, organisers of the Little Rebels Children’s Book Award.  The Little Rebels was inaugurated in 2012 and on 15 July the 2020 shortlist will be announced.  The National Shelf Service will be releasing videos with the shortlisted authors and illustrators from 11am on an hourly basis.

Can you tell us a little about the Little Rebels Children’s Book Award and how it came to be founded?

It grew out of the movement to revitalise a body for radical booksellers – this became The Alliance of Radical Booksellers.  Housmans and Five Leaves wanted to launch an award for political non-fiction for adults Bread and Roses this was inaugurated in 2012.  The booksellers decided they wanted a parallel children’s award.  They were unsure on format and so decided to approach a radical children’s bookseller.  Letterbox Library was the only dedicated one.  Letterbox set-up the parameters to start the award and ran this on behalf of The Alliance of Radical Booksellers.  The work got bigger and bigger and it began to feel unmanageable.  Housman’s took over for a year with Catherine Barter taking the lead on this and since then Housmans and Letterbox Library have joined forces to run it.

Which books have won in the past and what made them winners?

Azzi in between – Sarah Garland. 

It felt innovative, we weren’t  aware of many graphic novel picture books which looked at refugees.  There was a lot of information coming out at the time about refugees and particularly those in Syria. There was an avalanche of news that was difficult to digest and process.  Judges felt Azzi in Between relayed this in a way that was understandable but that also managed to be quite optimistic, without being idealistic.

After Tomorrow – Gillian Cross

It’s a novel on the theme of refugees but it takes a different approach - the book starts with the five banks crashing in the UK.  This forces people to seek refuge and causes mass starvation.  It’s a Dystopian, designed to get children to empathise with refugee experiences, imagining themselves in a position they might otherwise never be in.  Everything is flipped on its head with the subversion of ideas around who runs the camps and who inhabits them.

Scarlett Ibis – Gill Lewis

Gill Lewis has been on the shortlist many times ,an indication of how great she is at tackling politic issues but also perhaps signposting how little political writing there is for children.  It looks at the care system in the UK and manages to critique it without ever demonising social workers.  It explores ideas of mental health as well which had tended to be covered more in Young Adult fiction than in Middle Grade.

I am Henry Finch – Alexis Deacon, illustrated by Viviane Schwarz

This is the youngest book to win the Little Rebels award.  It’s really original and questions ideas of identity and individuality in both a philosophical and a literal way.  It makes big existential ideas tangible even for four-year-olds and so feels remarkable.

Ada Twist, Scientist – Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts

It is beautifully created, warm and funny.  There were conversations around whether or not it is radical, however, there are not enough books published like this and part of the role for the awards is to amplify.  It depicts a young black girl in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and felt relatively pioneering and a way to raise aspirations.  It’s more subtle than some of the other books showing girls in STEM as it is more detailed, fun and nuanced and it doesn’t feel tokenistic.

The Muslims – Zanib Mian

Sweet Apple published it as The Muslims and it later became part of a series, Planet Omar.  For us it won for lots of different reasons, judges were attracted to the idea that it was a small publisher and that the author was little known.   Part of the remit for the award is to amplify the voice of those who are not being amplified – creators and publishers.  Its theme was also important as it counters Islamophobia.  What is clever about it is it has a fun adventure narrative, but also offers a guide to Muslim Life and Culture in Modern Britain.  It’s very clear in its mission, but manages to counter ever becoming didactic through its adept use of humour.

Freedom – Catherine Johnson

It won because there are so few books being written in this country which look at the United Kingdom’s culpability in enslavement.  The country’s riches are built on enslavement and the persecution of other people.  It’s a history that isn’t talked about or taught enough.  In the hands of Catherine Johnson the subject is well-researched by a writer who handles historical fiction for middle grade at its absolute best.

Did you read any radical books as a child and what impression did these make upon you?

Catherine: I wish the answer was yes, but I don’t think I did.  Most of my reading was very white and  I used to read Bunty comics which often held a somewhat sanctimonious moral position which was put across in quite a condescending way.  There were books that I read which were socially engaged, worthy children’s books centring around divorce and the family.  Most of the radical ideas I came across were through children’s television with programmes like Grange Hill and Byker Grove.

Fen:  It wasn’t good.  The few books I read which might be considered radical included Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy.   This felt very different to me, it wasn’t making a comment about a feisty girl, but was an astute assertive character who wasn’t ‘girl-ified’, but was just a really interesting female lead.

The other book which made a real impression on me was The Story of Ferdinand –  it was an old title about pacifism and a bull that doesn’t want to join in with the other bulls in the bullfighting ring, he just wants to sniff flowers.  There was a deliberate anti-war message.  It is probably quite sexist now, but really challenged ideas around masculinity and about war.

What qualities do you look for in judges and how does judging work?

Fen: Firstly they have to have a good knowledge of children’s literature – we have judges from a range of perspectives, they might be a bookseller, they could be a creator, they could be a consultant or educator.  What is important is that joined with that, there has to be a political drive!  That might be through charities they have been aligned with, through activism, but it might be quieter through an understanding and lobbying that children should have access to a wider range of titles.  This in itself can be quite a radical form of politics.

Catherine: One of the interesting things with the awards is that we don’t always have a full understanding of what radical means until people are in the judging meetings discussing the books.  It’s a good way for people’s positions to become clear. 

Fen Coles: We  tend to have four to five judges (the smallest we have had was two - Liz Laird and Wendy Cooling in the inaugural year).  The judges get sent the shortlisted books and have a month to look at them.  There is a judging meeting which Catherine and I attend but don’t input into.  It’s not a chaired meeting, decisions always get made in the meeting and it usually lasts around half a day.  Last year we had a bit of a shadowing initiative with school children and their feedback was read to the judges as part of the meeting.

How would you like to see the award develop?

Fen: We’ve had funding this year, which helped us to do some development work. We want to build on that.  The award has a role to play in inspiring other creators to create radical children’s fiction.  There’s a dearth of this in the UK and we would like to see more of it and hope the award might influence its creating, giving a license to create!  It would help the award to be able to have a part-time, paid worker, but these positions are always difficult to fund raise for.  We would like to see the school shadowing built upon and it was brilliant being able to read back the children’s views and comments on the Award Night.  The audience really liked that and the children had valid and often different perspectives so we’d love to develop this and increase their input.

Catherine: There’s also the idea of having more associated prizes.  Perhaps a sister Young Adult prize, a children’s non-fiction prize to help encourage the world of radical publishing for children.

It’s been a challenging year for awards and books when will the winners be announced?

We are hoping to announce in late September.  We’ve pushed this back as far as we can without impacting on next year’s awards.  The further away we can get the announcement, the closer we are to having some sort of event.  Now that we have funding, we want to use that to celebrate and further amplify the winners.

Are there any ways in which libraries can get involved?

The award chimes well with libraries as they have a history of bringing a wide selection of books to the communities they serve.  Little Rebels really lifts out the smaller publishers and lesser known voices.  If libraries can be showcasing the shortlist and if we can do things to enable and empower them to do that it would be great.  Having a librarian on the judging panel would be really useful.

We’re delighted by the partnership with the National Shelf Service as we are keen for as many children as possible to learn about these books.  Perhaps there are ways libraries might be able to look at Little Rebels events, hosting authors who are shortlisted, using some of the books in children’s book groups or during storytimes.

A big thank you to Catherine and Fen for taking the time to talk to us at a busy point in the Little Rebels award calendar and for all of the energy and time that is invested in a deeply important award.

It is a real pleasure to welcome Amy McKay, our very own Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal co-ordinator to the blog to discuss the transition project she runs at Corby Business Academy, where she is school librarian.  Amy was voted School Librarian of the Year in 2016 and together with her colleague Christina Mangin was awarded the Praise and Raise trophy in the Renaissance awards.


Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’ve been a school librarian for the first fifteen years of my career.  Alongside that, I am the National Co-ordinator of the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.  The thing I love most about my job is working with young people and their honesty and openness.  There is nothing more satisfying that being able to match someone up with the right book, especially when it’s a student who wouldn’t normally have read, it’s a chance to make a difference.

You’ve recently been planning a transition project, what makes this such an important stage for children’s reading?

It’s a key time in general, it can be both scary and exciting.  Moving up to year seven is a time of great change so anything that anyone can do in the school to support that is really important.  The library can play a key role in support offering an environment that is open, warm and welcoming.  We can be a safe haven for them, with staff they know and with regard to reading in general.  Reading for pleasure can drop off when children are not in school and that easily results in dips in literacy.  Anything we can do to encourage them to keep reading is really important.  Transition gives an opportunity to establish ourselves as a reading school and to be able to provide guidance and to make it fun and enjoyable rather than a chore!

How long have you been running your transition project and what does it involve?

This is the sixth year of running the project in its current form.  In a normal year it entails all incoming year six students receiving a copy of the same book to read over the summer holiday and receiving a special activity sheet we put together.  We try to make all of the activities fun: building a den outside, telling us about horrible food that they’ve eaten, we design the activities so that through taking part, they tell us a bit about themselves and bring that in to school. 

The book is used in school in the early part of the term and during the latter part of that first term the author comes to give a talk and signs books.  Getting the books to the students is one of the most important elements of the project, it gives a chance for us to introduce ourselves, for them to become familiar with us.  By telling them a bit about ourselves, we become familiar and friendly faces they seek out. 

We work with 25 to 30 primary schools to arrange visits with those students who are attending Corby Business Academy.  It takes a lot of planning, but it is a high point.  It’s a unique time in their lives, they are full of excitement but also have a sense of trepidation and are not sure how things will work out.  They are excited to see someone who can answer their questions and there is still so much enthusiasm.  It puts me in a good place as the school librarian because it means I can identify different personalities and think about ways to support these.

What kind of support is needed to make this happen?

The biggest support is from my colleague, Christina, in the library.  The project is delivered jointly by us and is a real team effort.  The support of the transition vice principal is also integral and then of course the primary schools themselves.  Over the years the project has been running, we’ve had the chance to build some fantastic links which has given a chance to liaise and work with schools at other points through the school year helping us to build a real community of reading!

What tips would you give to anyone wanting to run a transition project?

The biggest tip would be to buy slightly more books that your intake!  We have an intake of 200 students, but always buy additional copies (circa 210 copies).  I don’t chose a book that has been out in the last six months so that we can try to get the best support from publishers that is possible.  We also try to make it one that is not too well known in the hope that we are introducing students to new authors and books!  It is excellent to involve other staff, particularly English teachers, so that they can have conversations.  This enables the book to be embedded across different departments and establishes a reading culture within the school.  We try to use English as a springboard into other curriculum areas so when using Dave Cousins’ I’m a Nobody Get Me Out of Here we’ve had maths departments coming on board with measurements and have used heavily illustrated titles so there are links with art too.

How do you go about selecting the book?

It’s really hard to pick a book that 210 students will like when reading tastes and abilities are so varied.  Going for a funny book is a good choice as everyone likes a laugh.  It is also good to go for one that can be accessed by as many people as possible.  We don’t tend to go for upper ability as the shared reading experience is really important.  We’ve gone for Julius Zebra by Gary Northfield and Dragonsitter by Josh Lacey and Phil Earle’s Superhero Street.  We always try to choose books that are part of a series so readers have next steps.  It’s amazing the impact the project has, although Julius Zebra was two or three years ago, it’s still really popular in school as younger brothers and sisters have been told about it and word of mouth has spread.

Has lockdown affected any of your plans for this coming intake?

School were keen we continued with the challenge this year.  The big problem was how we got the books to the schools logistically.  We needed an alternative.  Happily Bloomsbury have produced a fantastic book in connection with the National Literacy Trust put together by Katherine Rundell, The Book of Hope.  It is full of extracts of books, short stories, poems, essays about hope. 

The book is available online for free over the summer.  It will be released in hard copy over the Autumn.  We changed the challenge this year.  We produced an accompanying booklet so if a student enjoys certain types of stories – funny stories, school stories – we could guide them. 

The students are likely to have missed quite a lot of school and we know that there might be concerns around mental health and concentration.  With this in mind, we’ve prepared lots of activities and fun ideas including children continuing some of the stories themselves and recommendations to springboard readers into different books and authors.  There are some fantastic people in the collection, all the ones as librarians we’d like young people to know about.

The money that would ordinarily be spent on books has been ring-fenced and the plan is that once author visits can happen we will invite two or three contributors.  Beatrice Cross at Bloomsbury has been incredibly supportive of us using the anthology.

Ordinarily we would have had the chance to meet with students face-to-face.  As that won’t be possible in the same way and because students won’t have their transition day in the way they normally would, we appealed to staff asking whether they would be willing to be videoed reading extracts from the book.  We anticipated having perhaps 15 people taking part, but we’ve had such a positive reaction we’ve got over 40 videos.  This is brilliant, it increases accessibility and is fantastic as it makes it a project for everyone.  It also means that students will see the faces and learn the names of 40 different staff members which can help allay some of the anxieties of the new start.

Anyone wanting to run a similar project will be keen to know about outcomes, are there any you can share?

The biggest outcome for me is that the initiative has become such a high profile project in the area that all of the schools in the area have asked to take the project on!  This is really exciting as it means all schools are aware of it and parents and children have the chance to engage with it and appreciate it.  All of the schools are using the booklet we’ve produced and it will form the base of a town ‘mass read’ here in Corby.  During the author visits we’re hoping to bring in other schools and collectively we can now reach thousands of children and help them to enjoy reading.

The project has had a profound impact on the library.  Prior to running it, it would usually take new students a little time to come and find the library and begin exploring it.  Now they have a reason to visit and they bombard us from the get go!  From the first breaktime of the first day onwards, we are absolutely full of new year sevens.  We want the library to be their home at school and it’s exciting that they get into the routine of viewing it in this way so early on!

A big thank you to Amy for sharing her time and expertise.

There is always something exciting about encountering a new talent, a voice that has something fresh to say and a new style through which to convey this.  We are delighted to welcome Soojin Kwak to the blog.  Soojin has a degree in illustration from Kingston University in Surrey.  Her first picturebook A Hat for Mr Mountain was published by Two Hoots and in 2019 Soojin won the Bologna Book Fair Silent Book Prize for her silent picture book Starbuilders.  Soojin lives in South Korea but enjoys spending time in the United Kingdom.

When did you realise you wanted to be an illustrator and can you tell us a little about your training?

What kind of books did you enjoy as a child and why?

There are some wonderful comments on creativity, kindness and belonging as part of a community in A Hat for Mr Mountain, what do you hope readers will come away feeling?

Can you describe your creative process in writing and illustrating the book?

You came second in the Macmillan Prize for Illustration.  How important are prizes like this in giving a platform to new illustrators and what effect did this have on you?

You won the Bologna Book Prize for Silent picture books, are there any techniques that are needed to tell a wordless stories and ways to help ensure the pictures carry the story?

Have you noticed any differences in terms of prevalent styles or attitudes towards illustration in the UK and South Korea?

What's next for you?

We are living in a unique period of British – World even – history. For the first time on record, schools, pubs, shops and businesses have all closed for months and we are all being forced to change the way we live our lives. As we spend almost all of our time at home, living life at a significantly slower pace, we would like to know: how has lockdown changed our reading habits?

We came up with a series of questions, about reading habits in lockdown, and sent them out to staff and our wider school family of students, parents and friends, via email and Twitter. The results were sometimes as expected, sometimes surprising but always fascinating:

Lockdown has affected many people’s reading habits so we asked if people had been reading more and from our survey, we found that 62.5% of people surveyed said yes, they were reading more during lockdown and 37.5% said no they were not reading more. Out of that 37.5% of people 18.75% said they were reading the same amount as they were prior to lockdown. We found 18.75% of the people surveyed said that they read before bed to help them sleep. Out of the people that said they read more during lockdown 37.5% doubled their normal reading time.

Lockdown has changed everybody’s lives: although these changes seem negative, one huge plus is that there is more time to enjoy activities you wouldn’t usually have time for.  Now people have time to read, it’s interesting to look at how different people like to enjoy a good story.  Although only one in 13 people asked have been using audio books, 23.1% have used Borrow Box to access free books. Borrow Box is an online library service that allows users to borrow books on their Kindles and other e-readers.

We were also interested in finding out how people’s reading habits have changed during lockdown, the results from our survey showed 64% felt their reading habits had changed with 43% reading significantly more. Many people have been reading different genres for example: “I’ve read non-fiction for pleasure for the first time in years,” said one person who was surveyed, another response was “I’m finding more time to read during the day and not just before bed. I’m also making time for more academic reading for work.”  We were intrigued  to find out that 28.5% of people surveyed stated that they were reading online (i.e. Twitter, Audiobooks or online articles/sites).

When we asked the public if they had been experimenting with different genres during the lockdown period, we got a very mixed response.  The majority of people said that they’d stuck to their usual styles of reading, but 38.5% informed us that they had indeed tried different genres. One person said that they find comfort in reading historical fiction to escape this confusing time, and two people have indulged in biographies. Another respondent told us that they’d started listening to audio books as a family, helping little ones to develop a love for reading.   

The final question which we asked about changing reading habits was about the style of books we choose to read, which can change depending on the circumstances at the time. So, we asked which books people would recommend whilst in lockdown. These were some of the answers we got: Many people recommended exciting and thrilling books such as The Hobbit by J. R. R Tolkien, Shadowsmith, The Nowhere Emporium and The Elsewhere Emporium, all of which are by Ross Mackenzie, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Whereas, some people decided to choose books that would make them laugh, such as the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde and the St Mary’s series by Jodi Taylor.  People choose these books as a means of ‘escape’ from the news of the current pandemic, which can be depressing. However, a few people decided to read books that seemed relevant to the situation or to help them cope with what is going on around us. Some of these books include La Peste by Albert Camus, Calm by Fearne Cotton and The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Rauf.

At this time, I personally recommend reading books that are part of a big series like Harry Potter by J.K Rowling or The Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan because I feel you will never get bored with these books.

One thing that has come out of our research is very interesting and nice to know: when we face difficult and trying times, more of us that ever, turn to books to help us to get through them.

With grateful thanks to Isabel and Lewis Y7 and Ella Y8 from  Millfield Science and Performing Arts College, Thornton Cleveleys for writing and researching this blog.  Grateful thanks too to Mel Bleakley for her support.

A M Dassu is a writer and magistrate based in the heart of England.  She is the Deputy Editor of SCBWI-BI's Words and Pictures magazine and is a Director of Inclusive Minds.  A. M. Dasu won the international We Need Diverse Books mentorship award in 2017.  She has used her publisihing advances for Boy Everywhere to assist Syrian refugees in her city and has set up a grant to support an unpublished refugees/recently immigrated writer.  Am Dassu can be followed on Twitter @a_reflective  or through her website.  We are delighted to welcome A M Dassu to the blog and are excited to be able to feature a preview of chapter one from Boy Everywhere which publishes in October.

Refugee week was founded in 1998 to encourage an understanding of why people seek safety and to celebrate the contributions of refugees. Unfortunately, over two decades later, xenophobia is still rife and the arrival of refugees and immigrants to this country is still questioned and frequently opposed.

The theme for this year’s Refugee Week is to Imagine and this is exactly what I did five years ago when I first began writing BOY, EVERYWHERE.

In 2015, I put myself in the shoes of a thirteen-year-old boy who lived a happy, normal life; who made plans with friends, had the potential to play for the school football team, an iPad, a PlayStation, a great school, weekends at the mall to look forward to, and I imagined what it would feel like to lose it all.

BOY, EVERYWHERE, was inspired by a news interview that showed refugees in muddy camps wearing Nike trainers and holding smartphones, and talking about what they’d left behind. Looking around my comfortable living room, I realised how similar their lives were to ours in the West and how easily a civil war could bring the same fate upon any of us. I had been supporting refugees by setting up fundraising campaigns to provide food and aid for many years but I knew this wasn’t enough. I wanted to do something long-lasting by sharing their incredible achievements, culture and backgrounds. So I started writing a story about a boy who once had everything.

I have been honoured to spend time with some of the most amazing people, who had been left with no choice but to leave Syria. Among them were English graduates, department store buyers, teachers, doctors and architects, and all of them had to start anew. Through BOY, EVERYWHERE I wanted to focus not only on the arduous journey a refugee takes to get to safety, but also what and who they leave behind and how difficult it is to start again. I wanted the focus to be on who they were and are, their identities as Syrians, not just the temporary political status attributed to them in their new country.

My hope is that this book helps to challenge stereotypes and break down barriers in our society. In a world where we are told to see refugees as ‘other’, I hope you will agree that ‘they’ are also ‘us’.

With love and hope,

A. M. Dassu 

Chapter 1

It all started going wrong during English. It was the last lesson on Thursday before the weekend, we’d just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Miss Majida stood at the whiteboard going through some comprehension questions. I was scribbling them down, my head resting on my arm, when Leila tapped me on my shoulder from behind and handed me a note.

Are you coming ice-skating tomorrow?

I’d started writing back when the door flew open and Mr Abdo, our principal, burst into the room.

I shot up from my desk the second he entered and straightened my shoulders. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Mr Abdo, their faces blank.

‘Pack your bags. You’re all to go home,’ he said, rubbing the creases on his tired, worn face. ‘See you back here on Sunday morning.’

We didn’t need telling twice. Everyone slapped their books shut and the room erupted into noisy chatter. My best friend Joseph turned to me and our eyes locked in confusion. ‘Your parents and guardians have been called and are on their way to collect you,’ Mr Abdo added, loosening the knot in his tie, his lips thin and tight, lines deepening across his brow. ‘But why, Sir?’ asked someone from the back of the class. ‘There’s been a bombing. This is not a drill, eighth grade. We need to get you all home. You know the protocol.’

A collective gasp rose from the room.

Through the sash windows the sky was a clear blue. I couldn’t see any smoke. Everything looked  normal.  The old orange tree stood firm in the sunlit courtyard, the gold crescent moon on top of the mosque’s minaret gleamed in the distance. Behind it the red, white and black striped flag on top of the church tower fluttered gently in the breeze, cars were hooting their horns, the newspaper seller was still shouting out to people passing by his stall.

Where had the bomb gone off? Panic prickled through me as I thought of home. I wished phones were allowed in school so I could just call to see if Mum, Dad and Sara were okay. I grabbed my bag to get my iPad, but remembered it wasn’t in there. ‘Joseph, get your tablet out,’ I said. ‘Just want to check what’s happened – I forgot my iPad at home.’

‘They won’t have bombed anywhere near us, Sami. Don’t worry,’ said Joseph, pulling his tablet out of his bag and swiping to log in. ‘What shall I type?’ he asked, leaning in towards me.

‘Google ‘bombing in Damascus’.’

After a second, he pursed his lips and said, ‘Nothing’s coming up.’ He showed me the error message – the internet was down again for the second time that day. I felt my shoulders tense and quickly reminded myself that it was usually the outskirts of the city that were bombed. Most   of Syria was torn apart because of the war, but no one had gotten close to Damascus.

‘Your mum and dad are at work, right?’ Joseph asked, his eyes focused on my forehead. I realised I was sweating and wiped the back of my arm across my face.

‘Yeah, Dad’s at the hospital but Mum worked from home today because Sara wasn’t feeling well. They should be at the

mall now,’ I said, glancing at my Swatch. ‘She’s picking up my football boots before the trials.’

‘Well, no one’s ever bombed the centre. The government’s always on high alert – just chill, bro,’ said Joseph, lightly pushing his fist into my shoulder before turning to put his tablet away.

He was right. But every time there was a bomb alert,    I couldn’t help worrying. Damascus is safe, I told myself. I took a deep breath, gathered my books and packed them into my bag while Mr Abdo spoke to Miss Majida. She had her hand over her mouth and looked like she was about to burst into tears.

A backpack pushed past my arm, followed by another – everyone was already leaving.

‘They’re doing you a favour, Sami, you weren’t gonna pass the English test later anyway.’ I turned to find George grinning at me. ‘Neither were you, sucker,’ he said, pushing into Joseph. Even at a time like this, George couldn’t help being an idiot. Maybe it was his way of showing he wasn’t nervous like me, but it was so annoying.

‘You’re the one that’s gonna fail, loser,’ said Joseph, sticking his face into George’s.

‘Shut up! You’re so fat, the only English letters you know are K, F, C,’ George sneered at Joseph, then turned to me, raising his eyebrows and running his hands through his hair. So dumb, I thought. George still hadn’t got over Joseph coming from a non-English-speaking school. The class babble and sound of scraping chairs made it hard to think of a quick response but I had to stick up for Joseph, whose cheeks were now the colour of tomatoes. I rolled my eyes at

George. ‘We’ll see… K, F and C are still three more letters than you know. Did you stay up all week thinking of that one?’ His grin grew, so I added, ‘Shall I use smaller words to make sure you understand what I’m saying?’ It wasn’t the greatest comeback but I couldn’t think of anything else. ‘Loser,’ I muttered, as I watched him get tugged away by his mini fan club, which consisted of exactly two friends.

Joseph and I joined the stream of kids leaving the classroom. Mr Abdo was now speaking to Miss Majida at the door, but she stopped talking the second I drifted towards it.

Joseph clutched his backpack, his head lowered. He was unusually quiet. Ugh. George had got to him again.

‘You want to go to Damer’s for ice cream after the trials?’ I asked to cheer him up.

‘Yeah, of course, man!’ Joseph said, his eyes sparkling with excitement. ‘Then we can go again tomorrow after ice- skating.’ He grinned.

Mr Abdo marched past us. ‘Hang on,’ I said to Joseph and ran to catch up with him.

‘Erm, Sir, we’re supposed to be going to football after school, where shall we wait?’ I said, wondering if Mum had collected my football boots.

He picked up his pace and strode into the classroom next door to ours and started talking to the teacher inside. I shrugged my shoulders at Joseph as he caught up with me. We rushed down the central stairway of the school behind the swarm of students and flowed into the large reception area, where our physics teacher, Miss Maria, was ushering everyone out of the side exit. I slowed down as I spotted Joseph’s dad in a smart dark-grey suit, sitting on

the deep-buttoned green leather sofa with his head in his hands. No one else’s parents were inside, which was odd. The dark wood-panelled walls where the president’s portrait hung made him look even gloomier.

‘Baba?’ said Joseph. His dad looked up.

‘Ah, Sami, come here.’ Joseph’s dad stood up and reached out to hug me first. Weird. I went to him feeling awkward, and as he embraced me tightly I felt my heart begin to race.

He pressed my head against his shoulder and ruffled my hair, then released me and grabbed Joseph. I stepped back, feeling woozy from inhaling his strong aftershave.

‘Right, let’s get you both home,’ he said in Arabic, turning from Joseph.

‘But what about the football trials?’ I asked. ‘Our driver is bringing my boots. I have to wait for him!’

‘Your dad asked me to pick you up. It’s not safe to be out today.’

‘But, Baba!’ Joseph interrupted. ‘We were gonna get on the team today! This is so unfair!’

‘Joseph, I already told you, it’s not safe to be at the stadium.’

Joseph tutted, shoved his fist into the carved wooden door and walked out.

‘Thank you! I’ll keep you updated,’ Joseph’s dad shouted at the school receptionist as he followed Joseph out. I ran after him, my stomach lurching. Dad wouldn’t send Joseph’s dad to pick me up unless it was serious. Maybe the bombing was really bad. Dad would know because of the number of casualties coming in at the hospital.

The street outside school was a tangle of gridlocked cars and beeping horns. Cars were double parked across the pavement, leaving hardly any room to walk between them. The newspaper seller shoved papers and magazines into our sides as we walked past his stall, desperately trying to get them sold while the street was jammed with people. We    all got into Joseph’s dad’s Honda CRV and I pulled the seat belt over me slowly, looking out at all the parents frowning in their cars. Joseph glanced at me and then pulled out his tablet.

‘Can’t believe they dropped a bomb today of all days… been waiting ages for this,’ he muttered under his breath.

‘I know…’ I said. ‘I bet Avraham’s on his way with my boots as well. He’s probably stuck in all the traffic now.’

‘What did you end up ordering?’ he asked, pressing

Start on a game.

‘Can’t get the Nike Magistas in Damascus. So I got the Adidas Predators.’

‘Oooh, nice.’ He looked out of the window and then said, ‘Thanks for sticking up for me with George.’ His cheeks were flushed again.

‘No worries… I’d never leave you to face that thug alone.’ George and his stupid gang had bullied Joseph ever since we started middle school. They thought they could do or say anything they wanted because they were ulad masooleen

– kids of government officials. I’d never seen Joseph look so sad or alone as that first week, and I never wanted him to feel that way again. I’d always be there for him. It had always been Sami and Joseph. And it would be for ever.

‘Ignore him,’ I said. ‘He’s just jealous of your skills – still

hasn’t got over last semester, when you scored that penalty.’

Joseph smiled. ‘Yeah, that was awesome. Do you think they’ll rearrange the trials to next week now?’

‘Yeah, probably.’

As Joseph went back to his game, I stared out of the window, checking out everyone’s cars. Leila’s mum was in her space grey Lexus RX, but I couldn’t see Leila through the tinted glass. Oh man – I realised I’d totally forgotten   to reply to her note after Mr Abdo walked in. I’d message when I got home and tell her me and Joseph would be at the ice rink at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

It took twenty minutes to get out of the school street behind all the other cars, but when we got moving I could see the high-rise buildings were still intact, the roads were clear, traffic only building up near the checkpoints. There were a few fluffy clouds scattered in the sky. Something circled the blue far away, probably a helicopter. I still couldn’t see any smoke in the air. They probably bombed the outskirts of the city, I reassured myself again.

On the way to Joseph’s neighbourhood, a crowd of people were gathered outside a big villa, the men in smart suits and the women in dresses, some wearing headscarves. But I was more interested in the cars they were standing next to – a black Bentley and a white Rolls Royce parked on the road. Both Joseph and I sat up to get a better look, our mouths open, practically drooling.

‘Woah. What do you think they’re here for?’ I asked Joseph.

‘Probably a wedding… or a funeral,’ he said, showing me his game score and smirking. ‘I beat you, right?’

‘Oi! Give me that,’ I said, grabbing his tablet and pressing

Play. We’d been doing this for weeks.

Joseph’s dad parked outside their apartment building. As the car stopped on the smooth black tarmac, we heard what must’ve been gunshots in the distance. I always thought it sounded like rain hitting a tin roof. But it wasn’t raining. We jumped out, sheltered our heads with our arms and ran through their black front gates. We raced straight up to Joseph’s bedroom, throwing our bags down next to some dried orange peel he hadn’t bothered binning.

I sat on the end of his bed while Joseph switched on his PlayStation and small flat screen TV. ‘May as well play FIFA, if we can’t play the real thing, eh?’ he said, his second chin protruding more than usual because of his grumpy face.

‘Yeah, may as well,’ I said, wishing the trials hadn’t been cancelled and we were showing off what we’d been practising.

There was a small knock on the door and it opened. ‘Hi, you two. Do you want anything to eat?’ asked Joseph’s mum.

‘Nah,’ said Joseph, still facing the TV screen, waiting for the game to load.

‘How about you, Sami?’

‘No thanks, Aunty, but can I have a drink please?’ ‘Sure. What would you like? Coke?’

‘Yes, thanks. Shall I call my mum to get Avraham to pick me up? He’s probably waiting for me at school.’

‘No!’ she said quickly, in a strange high-pitched voice. ‘Your dad wants you to stay for dinner. Stay there – I’ll be right back with that Coke!’ She pulled the door tight and left.

I bit my lip and frowned as I grabbed the remote from Joseph’s hands and put it on TV mode.

‘Oi! What you doing?’ shouted Joseph.

‘Shhh, I just wanna check the news. See why Dad got us picked up. Don’t you wanna know?’

‘Not really. All they’ll show is more dead people.’ ‘Oh, come on, it’ll only take a minute.’

‘Go on then,’ said Joseph.

I flicked through the channels one by one. Kids’ cartoons, music, documentaries, news channel. My head started spinning as I read the headline flashing in red at the bottom of the screen.

DAMASCUS: CHAM CITY CENTRE MALL REBEL TERRORIST BOMB ATTACK

I sat staring at the image on the screen. The once-shiny glass building was now partly rubble. The glass half of the mall was a broken grey shell – the concrete half was just about standing. There were no windows or doors left in any of it and people in high-vis jackets rushed through the smoke, debris, rows of police cars and ambulances. I watched, but couldn’t move. My ears throbbed. I could see Joseph’s arms waving around next to me. Everything had slowed down, the noise from the TV and Joseph’s words muffled. I tried to say something, but nothing came out.

The mall had been bombed. Mum and Sara were there.  Buying my football boots.