The Night Bus Hero

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I don’t think Raúf has put a foot wrong so far with her novels to date – and this is no exception. Told from the interesting perspective of the bully in school, Hector gains our sympathy quite unexpectedly – we can see how and why he gets the blame, often deservedly, but also when it’s not really his fault.

Hector is a bully. He steals from the other kids, and torments them with physical and verbal abuse. But then an act of revenge against Thomas, a local homeless man who dared to defend himself, goes very wrong and Hector realises he could get in serious trouble this time. Especially since it was witnessed by Mei-Li, the “teacher’s pet” from his class. I’ve been getting into trouble for as long I can remember. Usually I don’t mind ‘cos some of my best, most brilliant ideas have come from sitting in detention. But when a prank on a homeless person gets out of hand this leads to Hector being befriended - somewhat reluctantly at first, by Mei-Li – who introduces Hector to the shelter she helps in and thus to an understanding of some of the pressures and causes of homelessness. An important social message for all – but this book is also a who-done-it trying to solve mysterious, slightly odd crimes whilst the graffiti left at the scenes of these crimes seem to indicate that homeless people are involved in some way. A wonderfully heartfelt story filled with nuance, empathy and hope from award-winning author Onjali Rauf. This story highlights the topic of homelessness and explores the spectrum of attitudes that people hold towards homeless people, as well as exposing a number of common prejudices.

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I also have a wider knowledge of the homeless after reading this, and I don't think I could ever walk past a person on the street in the same way again. I am grateful for this insight into the challenges and terrors that these people face in their daily lives and have even more respect for them than I did before. This book touches on many themes, with the main two being bullying and homelessness. Onjali manages to write about these in a serious way, whilst still bringing in a humorous side. I loved going on the journey with Hector and seeing him learn about homeless people and how they aren't bad like he thinks they are at the beginning - the friendship that blossoms between Thomas and Hector is truly beautiful. I also liked seeing how Hector changed throughout the story, learning about homelessness really changed his behavior and way that he views the world, by the end of the book he has settled down and is no longer a bully like his former friends Will and Katie (they may have been the influence on Hector's bullying in the first place). Hector is a bully who doesn’t really care about anyone and thinks his cringey parents don’t care about him. His teachers don’t seem to like him (he certainly hates them), he particularly dislikes teacher’s pet Mei Lei, and he devotes his time to being mean to other kids and making them give him sweets.

Author Guy Bass introduces SCRAP, about one robot who tried to protect the humans on his planet against an army of robots. Now the humans need his... Your class will count the syllables in each line of the haiku poem and see whether they were written correctly.The night bus hero is about a boy called hector (he is a bully)who goes around being naughty to loads of people .He takes sweets of little children and is horrible to them.He has got two friends who are also very naughty.One day he thinks he has found a thief and blames it on a homeless man (Thomas).When he works out it wasn’t him they work together to find the real thief .When they work it out and catches them they are so relieved(they also turn into best friend. Three reading comprehension activities linked to chapters four, five and six of The Night Bus Hero. Each chapter has a comprehension activity that includes 20 questions that work on different skills as well as also having the answers included separately. I would have liked the book better if it wasn't realistic contemporary fiction but it's supposed to be one so I just have to be realistic when it comes to my opinion on the book.

I think this so thought provoking and some incredibly interesting conversations could be had around this! LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Raúf's craft is so beautiful, you are immersed in the story as soon as you open the book and everything feels so real.

The focus of this activity is punctuation and more specifically, inverted commas. Your class are challenged to find the inverted commas in the passages or adding them in to the appropriate sections of the sentences. Readers of around 8 and above will find this a very smooth and intriguing story with some appealing characters. All of the sentences in this activity provided were spoken by characters in chapters 14 – 21. Your class will have to identify who said each statement.