She delicately explores what it means to be a refugee and an asylum seeker, particularly amongst children and teenagers. Her mother is drowning in grief and is unable to speak English, so the burden of looking after her younger brother and trying to deal with the authorities falls to her. And today we’re very pleased to share a piece by Catherine on the inspirations behind the book, which you can read below. In her introduction to this, Bruton name-checks some of the best dance stories out there - the Sadlers Wells books by the wonderful Lorna Hill; Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild; and The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown. I live just outside Bath with my husband, Jonny, and my two children (plus two toy monkeys, six goldfish and we’re hoping to get some chickens!

This story shows the true danger and difficultly many people face as they make similar journeys to find safety. It is heartbreaking that there are so many families out there who has no choice but to run away from everything just to live a peaceful life.

The writing is suffused with a teenage sensuousness: costumier’s fabrics such as organza and taffeta seem to caress the reader’s skin as well as the characters’. Tel daarbij op dat ik soms het gevoel had dat de personages ouder waren (of zich voordeden) dan ze daadwerkelijk waren - al kon ik dat bij Aya nog wel begrijpen - en er 1 personage behoorlijk stereotype bleef en dan heb je toch een boek dat mij geraakt heeft, maar niet overtuigd. Classic stories that live long in the heart and the imagination and which I hope my story can live up to. She joins a dance studio in the centre in England while trying to seek asylum for her family, even though her dad was lost at sea. The story follows Aya as she attempts to help her mother and younger brother negotiate the vagaries and difficulties of life as an asylum seeker.

The book addresses the challenges and difficulties faced through an engaging story of a child dancer.We Can be Heroes was inspired by an article I wrote for The Times in 2008 about children who had lost a parent in 9/11 attacks and it has been compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Night-time, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Millions. Aya is invited by a local ballet teacher to come and join her ballet school, Aya used to dance when she was in Syria. The story of Aya's journey is juxtaposed against her current experience of seeking asylum in the UK, which is, in turn, juxtaposed against a Holocaust story.