Onjali Q. Raúf: The Boy at the Back of the Class

A very special author event with Onjali Q. Raúf who wrote award-winning books such as  From The Boy at the Back of the Class to The Game I will Never Forget. A fun, informative and unique look back through the books and Onjali’s inspirations and a chance to ask questions.

Onjali Q. Raúf is a multi award-winning children’s author, playwright and women’s and refugee human rights activist.

She is the founder and CEO of Making Herstory which works to end the abuse, enslavement and trafficking of women and girls in the UK, and  O’s Refugee Aid Team which mobilises aid convoys and funds to help frontline refugee response teams across northern France and beyond.

She is the author of multi-award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling children’s book, The Boy at the Back of the Class, which received the Blue Peter Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2019, the Sakura Medal of Japan in 2020 and the Janusz Korczak Prize in 2022 amongst many others.

From February to July of 2024, a theatre adaptation of the story toured across England. Her follow-up stories include The Star Outside My Window, The Night Bus Hero, The Great Food Bank Heist, The Lion Above the Door, Where Magic Grows, a non-fiction title, Hope on the Horizon, and most recently, The Letter With the Golden Stamp and a first picture book, The Girl at the Front of the Class.

She was awarded an MBE in 2022 for her services to women’s rights and children’s literature, and in 2023, was recipient of the NEU Fred and Anne Jarvis Award for services to education and her humanitarian works.

Onjali is also a Patron of the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE), VIP Reading, Facefront Theatre, and NIA Women; a Trustee of Killed Women (KWN); an Ambassador for Walk With Amal, and a contributor to BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought. An alumnus of the Cambridge University Senior Faith in Leadership programme, she was listed as one of BBC’s 100 most influential women from around the world in 2019.

Twitter: @OnjaliRauf / @MakeHerstory1 / @O_Refugee

Website: www.onjaliqrauf.org

Recommended for ages 7-11 years  

Duration: Approx 60 minutes, inc a Q&A

Prices:

Members: £4.50

Non-members: £5

Part of WayWord Multi Buy – book more events and save

All attendees over the age of 12 months require a ticket (adults and children).