The Power of One - Buce Courtenay - Nick Kenyon-Smith

This story is written by Bruce Courtenay who’s written a lot of great books. This story is about a young English boy by the name of Peekay. He comes from a family of just his Mother and his Grandmother.
Peekay is soon forced to attend an African Boarding school a long way away from home where he is tortured and treated like a slave to the older Afrikaner kids. Although Peekay finds a friend in an old chicken brought who he’s been looking after for several years.
He finds it very hard to mix in with the others seeing most of them were from other heritages including Indian, Zulu and other African countries.
When Peekay is at school without any friends or family, he’s alone to deal with all the older boys who make his life absolute hell. The boys realise Peekay is different when they see he has no ‘helmet on his snake’.
Peekay returns to his home very scared and tells his family about what’s been happening, but there really isn’t anything they can do about it.
Reading this book get’s you quite angry at some points but then can make you very happy by the way Peekay acts in different situations. It may not sound as interesting as it is when you’re reading as I was up very late at night and couldn’t put it down!
I would recommend this book not so much to younger children but mainly to years 13 and older. There are some parts in the story which are a bit confusing and hard to understand.

Nick Kenyon-Smith