Daniel is sitting with his best mate Maxie in the school hall. They are mucking about while the head teacher is leading the assembly in the usual Monday morning song. But she seems distracted, as if she’s waiting for something. As the school orchestra plays to the end of the song, and the students sing along with them, a boy and a woman step into the hall.

Mrs Hoolihan claps her hands at the end of the song and after a little whispering with the woman, introduces the boy.

“This is a new boy. His name is George.”

George seems a little odd, but it’s his first day after all, and everyone is a bit weird on their first day. Daniel is asked to look after George as they will be in the same class. Daniel and his classmates are intrigued by the new kid as he is a bit different. George takes a little while to adjust to things in class, but after a few minutes of watching and listening to a maths game he joins in and amazes all with his quick thinking.

They soon discover that George is smart in lots of subjects, polite, writes very neatly and seems shy. But he is a little odd. Daniel can’t put his finger on it. Is it because he is followed everywhere by the lady who came with him to school. She asks everyone to forget she is in the corner watching everything, but it is hard to ignore her scribbling in her notebook. Is it the way George doesn’t answer half the questions tossed at him by their teacher or classmates?

When George and the woman are collected at lunchtime by a man in a big black van, George acts even more strangely. Is there something wrong with George? Worried but still intrigued, George is the hot topic of the school until he comes back again. The more time they spend with him, the more they like him, despite his strange behaviour.

Daniel is asked to have George over after school, but again, the woman follows with her notebook. What is going on?

Soon all is revealed in another assembly. George is not who or what they thought he was. But Daniel and his friends know George is more than his minders say he is, and they are determined to prove it.

This is a thought provoking story for any who reads it. Everyone is always interested when a new kid comes to school. Who are they? Where have they come from? What sports/music/animals/hobbies do they like or enjoy? This is no different when a Brand New Boy named George arrives at Darwin Avenue Primary Academy. But something’s different about George.

A predictable reveal answers this question but in pure Almond style, there is so much more to this read than just a new kid at school. George is being moulded to conform to normal child behaviour in a school environment, but observations (not subtle) are made for the reader that we too in life are moulded like robots to conform to ‘normal’ predictable behaviour. Stand up, sit down, in assemblies, go to class, eat your lunch, go to class, go home, every day as expected. Who are really the robots?

It’s only when Daniel and his mates are away from those expectations of behaviour that true living, freedom and imaginative spirit can soar. Time in a local wood where they all played as a child, brings back all that imagination and further builds upon it. George may be able to do amazing things when programmed, but can he think, dream, imagine, and truly enjoy life as we humans can?

Technology is constantly evolving in incredible ways, but can it ever reach the wonder that it is to be human?

Author – David Almond

Age – 9+

(2022, Walker Books, New kid, New Boy, School, Friendship, Real, Robot, Corporation, Technology, Machine, Imagination, Fun, Play, Freedom, Holidays, Secret, Rescue, Cooperation, Insight, Thought Provoking, Mystery)