Refugee Boy

Benjamin Zephaniah

Jul 2011 · Bloomsbury Publishing

About this ebook

'Playful, obstinate and courageously humorous ... hilarious and later heartbreaking' Guardian
'Sweet, funny, highly inventive' Yorkshire Post

The personal, funny and poignant tale of a young refugee, from acclaimed storyteller Benjamin Zephaniah

Acclaimed performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah's honest, wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published.

Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war, and Alem is welcome in neither place.

So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father – until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path...
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Brilliantly written and with a real ear for dialogue, fans of Angie Thomas and Malorie Blackman will love Benjamin Zephaniah's novels for young adult readers:

Refugee Boy
Face
Gangsta Rap
Teacher's Dead

Ratings and reviews

a incredibly moving book. must read. 10/10 a book about a boy who has to leave his home in order to survive. coming across good and bad people! makes you open you're eye's to the violence and hate, but also the love and the freindships out there.

this book is amazing and based on true story. so painful and sad. i wish there were more books like it.

I have this book and l must Benjamin all went out on this one ♥️♥️♥️♥️best book ever

About the author

Benjamin Zephaniah is probably one of the most high-profile international authors writing today, with an enormous breadth of appeal, equally popular with both adults and children. Most well-known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults and ground-breaking performance poetry for children, Benjamin also has his own rap/reggae band, and has appeared on desert Island Discs. He is in constant demand internationally to perform his work: he is (he thinks) Nelson Mandela's favourite poet, and is the only Rastafarian poet to be short-listed for the Chairs of Poetry for both Oxford and Cambridge University. Benjamin lives in East Ham, London and this is his second novel.