But at the same time, Aya and her family must fight to be allowed to remain in the country, to make a home for themselves and to find Aya's father - separated from the rest of the family during the journey from Syria. At times it felt like I was reading a cut and dry "idea" of what a refugees story should look like, though I am sure that is partly due to the story being targeted towards children and I am very obviously not a child.

Maggie Walton’s father has dedicated his life to a single pursuit: hunting down the monster created by Victor Frankenstein. It has cost Maggie and her family everything – and now her father is staking everything on one last voyage to the Arctic, with Maggie secretly in tow, where he hopes to find the monster at last.

The narrative engages in a series of flashbacks, talking about her life in Syria and the slow erosion of this by war, and the contrast is starkly rendered at some points. Night Mayor Franklefink has vanished from the Transylvanian Express - and it's up to you to solve the case! It explores the similarities and differences between her life and the other children in England her age and how she copes with the changes in her life. This is the story of Twill Twist – the orphan baby cast out into the snow and rescued by a young kitchen maid named Baggage Jones. Winner of the Books Are My Bag Readers AwardAya is eleven years old and has just arrived in Britain with her mum and baby brother, seeking asylum from war in Syria.

They can be very ordinary things, or rather outlandish ones (maybe a mixture of the two is best, it’s up to you…) Alternatively, you could work with a friend and choose objects for each other. I wanted readers to see her as just a young girl, with hopes and dreams, friendships and favourite teachers and hobbies, just like they have. Kortom een boek om in één ruk uit te lezen, niet enkel voor de doelgroep, maar ook voor volwassenen. I read this with both a full heart at the resilience of the human spirit and tears trickling down my cheeks at the challenges Aya and her family face.Ure wrote several young adult books about ballet but this 1984 novel is her best: I read my own Puffin Plus copy until it fell apart. It made me cry, and it made me smile, and it feels like one of those quietly classic stories that British children's literature does so utterly well. There’s also an abridged, accessible version for younger readers, for so many of whom Copeland is an icon. Aya's story is one that I'm sure is all too real to many immigrants and asylum seekers in the UK, and I'm also sure that some of them don't get as nice an ending as Aya's too.

As the reader follows her preparation for an audition, new friendships blossom but the tension faced by Aya and her family as they wait anxiously to find out whether they can stay or face deportation is tangible.

Her intermittent flashbacks to her life in Syria, the war and their journey, were in equal parts heart-wrenching, enlightening, and touching, but can make this book a difficult read in parts. This is a comprehensive history of the ballet from its origins in the French courts, when the positions were more etiquette than art, and dancers were as much courtesans as artists. Aya takes on the role of parent in her family after they are separated from her father, looking after both her mother and baby brother. And the terms used to describe refugees throughout the book (asylum seekers, I can't remember now but I know there was other interesting lingo too).