This amazing story by Onjali Q. Raúf for children aged 9 to 13 years is about Leo, a boy from Singapore, and his best friend Sangeeta from India.
Leo and Sangeeta are struggling with people staring at him and his family, however, everything changes when his school is going on a trip to a World War II museum. There at a cathedral, he finds a hero with his exact name above a golden lion.
The next week, the entire class finds out that they were invited to the Real Kidz Rule show. Their task is to make a big project about World War II, where everybody must research about a hero they choose. This makes Leo determined to tell others about the other Leo on the cathedral wall. I will not reveal how the story ends, though.
My favourite character was Leo’s dad, who is a very kind, smart and caring person. On the other hand, I really hated Toby, who is a school bully. He was doing bad things to Leo, like throwing tennis balls at him. Somehow, I liked this book so much that I honestly have nothing to dislike about it!
I greatly appreciated the idea of putting additional information at the end about acting against racism and prejudice and about heroes that were forgotten just because they were not white.
I very much enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend reading it. I hope you’d enjoy the book as much as I did.
Jonáš Zeman, 12 let
RAÚF, Onjali Q. The Lion Above the Door. Orion Children’s Books, 2021. ISBN 978-1-5101-0675-8.
