'The Boy at the Back of The Class' was one of those books that I'd heard about and desperately wanted to read. When I first got my hands on a copy, I remember reading it in a single night and I often go back to it to read some of my favourite chapters.

At the heart of the story is the very important subject matter of what it's really like to be a child refugee - a subject which many of us only know about from snippets on the news. Ahmet arrives from Syria, is placed in foster care and joins a school in London, where he initially struggles - he doesn't speak English, he misses his family and he has difficulties adapting to a brand new country and culture.

But a group of friends comes to the rescue - the narrator, along with Josie, Tom and Michael make an effort to get to know him. When Ahmet tells the class his story, they are deeply moved by everything that he's gone through. Later, when the narrator overhears some people on the bus talking about the UK borders being closed to refugees, they worry about Ahmet's parents not being able to come into the country, and they make it their mission to do everything to reunite the family - even if it means getting some very important people involved.

One of the most wonderful things about the story is that we don't find out the true identity of the narrator until the very end. Onjali Rauf leaves this to our imagination - what it means is that every reader sees them differently and perhaps feels closer to them as a result.

Below is one of my favourite extracts from the story in which the narrator tries to find a pomegranate for Ahmet, thinking that it will remind him of home.

I thought about pomegranates and how they might be Ahmet's favourite food and how he might be missing them.

So I asked, "Mum, can we get one?"

"One what, darling?"

"A pom-e-gran-ate?" I said carefully.

"Hmmm... They're a bit expensive... and you can't find them everywhere."

"How expensive?"

"About one pound fifty I think."

"What? Nearly two pounds just for one?"

Mum laughed. "Yes darling. For one. They come a long way to get to our supermarkets. And secondly, a pomegranate is also a really special fruit. It's like millions of little fruit all hidden away inside a small ball, and you can eat it for days. Do you want to see if we can find one?"

I jumped up and nodded. "But can we get two?" I asked.

"And why would you need two?"

I think Mum already knew the answer because her lips looked like they were about to smile.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all young readers. It really is a beautiful and important story.