Ho-Yen`s debut Boy in the Tower is one of my favourite books of all time, and Fly Me Home came very close to being just as good. There's a sprinkle of magic, of course, but at it's heart this is a wonderful immigrant story about a girl trying to find her home. Mirabelle says “It’s amazed me at how much I can relate to the book with starting a new school in a new place.

She builds this magical realism into her stories which I love in other authors too (Almond and Murakami, for example). He asked for help in arranging his flight home but the insurer said that flying was too risky for him. Lots to love and explore, but one thing I found jarring was the wisdom and eloquence of the narrator - I'm guessing she is around 9 or 10 years old in the book, but her voice was much older and wiser and this at times made for a slight disconnect.The story is an emotional one and there are many opportunities for discussion which may lead onto deeper PSHCE sessions. Full of friendship, family and magic, this stunning novel by Polly Ho-Yen, author of Boy in the Tower and Where Monsters Lie, is a must-read for 9-12 readers. There were moments when I was very invested in the storyline but other times when I didn't feel like there was much to it. Each pack carefully analyses the vocabulary used by authors, chapter by chapter, then provides an explanation of these unfamiliar or meaning-rich words in context.

You feel those difficult scenes so clearly with her that I'm sure that anyone reading them would really build up their empathy for anyone else that they met or saw who was going through a similar thing or would identify with it if they had gone through it themselves.

Polly Ho-Yen's own experience of teaching in an inner-London Primary School and caring about the children that she taught and the lives that they live really shines through in this book which is what makes it so special. Having said that, it is incredibly lovely when people like your books (I can never quite believe it! Children begin by forming plot predictions based on the front cover before looking at specific vocabulary in context.