The Letter with the Golden Stamp

Audrey is ten years old. She has lived on the same street since she was born. She has twin siblings, two best friends and a stamp collection and she also has a secret. We first meet Audrey in a London police station and she is just starting to tell the story of how she ended up there, very far from her home in Wales. The story unfolds in Audrey’s voice and we are transported with her on her extraordinary and remarkable journey which has all the tumbles, turns and excitement that you expect from a Rauf adventure.

Audrey is a carer for her ill mum and the book explores the harsh realities and difficulties that young carers face. We see the double life she has to lead, pretending nothing is wrong outside the front door, and the weight of responsibility that she has to bear. What is always exceptional about Rauf’s writing though is that she tells the stories of some of the most disenfranchised people with heart and empathy but without patronising or diminishing experience. Audrey is most definitely a heroine and most definitely fighting against the most incredible difficulties but her story is full of the kinds of plotting, planning and madcap adventure that any ten year old would relate to.

Audrey has plans to solve all the problems in her life. Her reality includes caring for younger siblings, providing food for the family on no income and planning how to get her mum the treatment she needs. Because the story is told through her eyes, we realise in the same time frame as she does that her community and the adults around her are reaching out to support her and her family and that she isn’t going to be alone in her trials for ever.

But this is an Onjali Rauf story so, before that happens, we have secret plans and cunning plots involving parcels and stamps, trucks, trains and underground railways, a chase through London and a brilliant tearjerker of an ending. The racing plot keeps you turning the page in excitement and you end the book feeling the love and joy that Audrey does.

The thousands of children who love Rauf’s books will love this one too and, as ever, she brings to the fore the stories of those whose lives are ‘different’ from the norm and celebrates them as the heroes they are.