Review: There’s a Boy Just Like Me from Book People

Last year Book People ran a competition for children to write a bedtime story with the winner having their book published as a picture book and illustrated by a professional children’s illustrator. The winner, Frasier Cox, created the story There’s a Boy Just Like Me and it’s been released today with proceeds going to Save the Children.

There’s a Boy Just Like Me is about an imaginary friendship between a British boy and a child refugee. It’s so different from any other book I’ve read – and LP really got involved in the story straight away and understood what it was about.

The story is beautifully written in rhyming verse and each page talks about something this pair of fictional pals could get up to together – from climbing in trees and eating sweets to watching TV and playing with siblings.

It talks about what they’ll do when they grow up – being explorers, scientists or playing professional football and it explains how similar the children are – with the same hair and the same missing teeth.

But, it also talks about how, even though they are so similar, their lives have been so different – with one living a life of peace and happiness and the other leaving his home and facing a life of worry and sadness.

The book is definitely a tale of current times. It’s topical and it’s so real. LP has children at her school who are the same as her but who are different – ones that don’t speak english or who have come to the UK from another country and so she immediately understood this book. She knew that it was talking about being nice people, about being inclusive and about helping everyone to be happy regardless of their background.

LP laughed that the book was called There’s a Boy Just Like Me – as she’s a girl, but she read it happily and really related to the story even though the main characters were boys. It’s a book that I think adults as well as children would get a lot from reading and I felt quite emotional after reading it with LP – especially knowing that a child had written it.

There’s a Boy Just Like Me is so beautifully illustrated and the pictures really do compliment the story and help to tell the story so perfectly. There’s a Boy Just Like Me is a fantastic book and one that is so necessary with such a string message of friendship, kindness and understanding. I know it’s a book we’ll be reading as a family for a long time.

There’s a Boy Just Like Me has an RRP of £11.99 but is currently reduced to just £4.99 and is available exclusively from Book People.