Book of the Week

Detention is a new middle-grade novel by Tristan Bancks, author of Two Wolves and The Fall and the guest author for our recent Read Like a Girl With Your Dad event. It’s fast-paced and suspenseful and packs a punch as it challenges readers to question how they think about asylum seekers.

The novel is highly recommended and would be an ideal class text for study for students in the middle years.

Book Trailer

The Story: (Goodreads)

Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one. 

When they make their escape, a guard raises the alarm. Shouting, smoke bombs, people tackled to the ground. In the chaos, Sima loses her parents.

Dad told her to run, so she does, hiding in a school and triggering a lockdown. A boy, Dan, finds her hiding in the toilet block. 

What should he do? Help her? Dob her in? She’s breaking the law, but is it right to lock kids up? And if he helps, should Sima trust him? Or run?

THIS MOMENT, THESE DECISIONS, WILL CHANGE THE COURSE OF THEIR LIVES.

Soundtrack

Teachers’ Resources

Comprehensive Teachers’ Resources are available to support the reading and teaching of the novel.

Slider image: Image by Johannes Plenio from Pixabay