The Night Bus Hero

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Despite the excitement, the adventure is also a way to bring everyone together so that a more important and sobering story can be told. She's not afraid of a challenge, and yet again makes a warming and insightful plot out of disparate elements that work together nicely.

I love how Hector is seen as just a naughty child, but Onjali dives deeper and explains that there is so much more to his behaviour than meets the eye. There’s Thomas, the homeless man with a heartbreaking background story; the Catwoman, who demonstrated to Hector the value of community connection and collaboration; and Mei-Li, Hector’s classmate who shows him what it means to treat others with a grace and respect that breaks barriers and brings about the treasure of moving beyond surface appearances. A brilliantly written and totally engrossing story that will help children understand and think deeply about the real human beings whose lives are impacted by homelessness - and also more generally about the power of kindness, friendship, empathy and how everyone has the potential to change for the better. I eventually realised it would provide great talking points for a class read aloud - why does this boy do the things he does?

Told from the perspective of a bully The Night Bus Hero explores the themes of homelessness while celebrating kindess, friendship and the potential everyone has to change for good. The story is partly based on the author's own experiences of homelessness as a child, inspired by her seeing the people sleeping rough on the streets in her neighbourhood. I could see all the lunch ladies in their bright blue uniforms staring at me with their mouths wide open, like doors someone had forgot to shut. Angry at the world, Hector decides to run off with the homeless man's trolley after school the next day.

In this lively, entertaining read, an unsettling encounter with a homeless man sets school bully Hector on the trail of robbers.

It's about this boy, Hector, who is a bully, but meets the homeless, and he helps one of them (Thomas) to solve a case, actually it's not really a case, it's many cases, a few people were stealing famous statue's from famous places! Mei-­Li was frowning at Robert, and Robert was sitting up straight and looking at the ceiling as if he had never seen it before. I also have a wider knowledge of the homeless after reading this, and I don't think I could ever walk past a person on the street in the same way again.

Would open up lots of conversation around how we treat others, stereotypes and just general kindness if shared with a class. Na jednej strane šikana, agresívne správanie či ľahostajnosťou blízkych motivovaná snaha zaujať, na strane druhej zas život na ulici a strata domova, súdržnosť i aké-také pretĺkanie sa. Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.

Onjali Q Rauf (winner of the Blue Peter Book Award and Waterstones book prize for The Boy at the Back of the Class) has written a gripping, realistic, and relatable tale with a strong moral at its heart, perfect for children aged seven and up. This story highlights the topic of homelessness and explores the spectrum of attitudes that people hold towards homeless people, as well as exposing a number of common prejudices. She is also the founder of O's Refugee Aid Team, which provides support for refugee families surviving in Calais and Dunkirk. Scenting a way of getting both rewards and recognition, he determines he needs to find out more about this homeless man, Thomas, from Mei-Li, who volunteers at the local soup kitchen.

I have to admit that this does make him a slightly difficult character to cheer on though, at least in the beginning! This was a family read aloud and expectations were enormous since we all loved the author’s previous read aloud, The Boy at the Back of the Class. Thereby begins a bit of a roller coaster adventure to discover just who else is targetting the homeless community after valued London icons start mysteriously disappearing.Raúf, the award-winning, bestselling author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, The Star Outside my Window and the World Book Day book The Day We Met the Queen, comes an incredible story about homelessness and bullying, told with humour and heart. My kids and I listened to the audiobook on our holiday road trip and loved the idea of the narrative perspective coming from the antihero- the school bully.