Audrey is a very busy nine-year-old. Before school she gets up, makes breakfast for herself and her twin siblings, helps get them ready for school, along with herself and checks on her mam. If Mam is having a Nightmare day, Audrey will rush the twins to school and rush home again to sit with her mum, by her bedside, ready to help in any way she can.

Mam didn’t use to have Nightmare days. In fact, Mam ran her own successful business, and was busy and happy in their household of three children and Audrey’s father. But when Mam started to get tired, and sore, and slowly lost all normal movement due to a terrible illness, their life fell apart, and with no other family – Audrey trying to hold everything together.

There are bright things in her life, like their kind and friendly postman Mo who brings Audrey stamps from all over the world. Mo always asks if everything is ok, and Audrey always tells him they’re fine. She never lets anyone know what’s going on behind their front door. She keeps her secret from Mo, her best friends Inara and Kavi, and her teachers at school.

Things get worse for Audrey when someone moves in across the street. Is it Them, coming to spy on her and her Mam? They are the people that split up families.

Soon things get so bad behind her own front door that the house across the road is the last thing on her mind. She has to get help for Mam and soon quickly hatches an outrageous plan. Stamps help trigger the idea, and also save her from terrible danger. Will she ever be able to sort out this horrible mess?

After finishing The Boy at the Back of the Class, I looked for more books by this author and found three more novels. This is the first I could get my hands (and eyes) on and I loved this story too. Learning that there are millions of Young Carers around the world like main character Audrey is a sobering fact. Many don’t ask for help, like in Audrey’s case, and the author herself experienced this when she was only 15 years old when her own father had an accident.

Audrey tells the story in her own words, and readers hear it second hand as she explains everything she has been through to a policewoman and a social worker. She ends up on a courageous adventure which breaks many rules, but she can’t see any other way to help her Mam.

I loved the way Audrey misunderstood or misinterpreted words, giving a light touch to a serious subject.

Another wonderful read by this author who has received a MBE in 2022 for her work with frontline refugee aid, women’s rights and services to literature.

Author – Onjali Q. Raúf

Age – 8+

Find more reviews on this author’s books here

(2024, Hachette NZ, Multi Award Winning Author, MBE 2022, Young Carer, Secrets, Mystery, Social Services, Family, Twins, Postage Stamps, Post Office, Philatelist, Community, Adventure, Friendship)