What a lovely book this is.  Although it is probably more suitable for our younger readers, it is still a book that can teach us all so much about empathy and understanding and kindness.  Our narrator befriends the new boy in school, a refugee who has had to make a perilous journey to escape the bombs and the war in his own country.  Slowly we learn more and more about both Ahmet, the new boy, and Alexa, the narrator culminating in a dangerous plan to reunite Ahmet with his family.

The standout feature of this book for me is Alexa – kind and brave and constantly showing concern for other people’s situations.   Everything we know about our narrator is only is slowly revealed to us throughout the book but ultimately these things (age, gender, ethnicity, social status etc,) don’t matter.   It is her unselfish actions and how she treats others that define her and show us what can be achieved through kindness and empathy.  I’ll be honest, I may have shed a wee tear at the end!