Award-winning children's novelist Onjali K. Rauf visits school

Onjali with Year 4 pupil Stefan

Earlier this month pupils at Grove Park Primary school were lucky enough to receive a visit from Onjali K. Rauf, author of the award-winning children’s novel ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’.

The visit was organised to coincide with ‘Empathy Day’: an annual event founded by Empathy Lab.

All over the country, children, teachers, librarians and authors shared empathy-boosting books and took part in a variety of activities to challenge prejudice and build human connections.

Rauf’s debut novel portrays the refugee crisis through the eyes of a child, and is based on her personal experiences of working with Syrian refugees.

The novel won the Blue Peter Book Award, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Rauf is also a journalist and founder of the NGO Making History, an international women’s rights organisation.

Richard Charlesworth, Grove Park’s Literacy Lead said, “ We were thrilled to welcome Onjali as our fourth visiting author for this year. Her talk gave a deep, insightful and honest account of life behind the headlines. Through discussion about her work with
organisations in Calais and Dunkirk, Onjali encouraged children to empathise and understand the plight of refugee children - deepening their own understanding of the subject.”

Faith, from Year 5 said, “I liked how we heard from real-life experiences. Even though I had heard about the refugee crisis, Onjali really explained why the story needed to be written and why we need to empathise with others, especially those that need our support and love.”

Beatrice and Chloe, Year 4 added, “We participated in a question-and-answer workshop following Onjali’s talk. We found out about how the book was made, why Onjali wrote the book, and how it was published. Onjali’s visit was very
informative; we learnt lots about refugees and the conditions that they live in .”

After school, Onjali stayed to sign copies of her book, kindly provided by The Alligator’s Mouth children’s bookshop in Richmond.

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June 24, 2019