Jonathan Stables

“So Gary Petrie gave up and handed Samir a Quaver and he SQUEALED with delight and started sucking on it LOADS. But then Mrs Akbar tried to take the crisp away and Samir started so she gave it back to him and said, “OK. But just ONE.” We all watched as the baby sucked on the Quaver with WIDE EYES until it got all wet and gooey and then he took it out of his mouth and handed it to Haroon and said, “HAROO.” Maisie gasped and said, “He’s trying to say Haroon!” Mrs Akbar clapped her hands together and started screaming a bit again. And Haroon did the smile I have ever seen and gave his baby brother another hug (but he didn’t eat the soggy Quaver). Then Mrs Akbar asked Miss Jones to look after the baby and she took Haroon away into one of the classrooms for a bit. We had what was going on but then a few minutes later Haroon came out and said that his mum had had a little talk with him and asked him why he’d called his brother an ALIEN and that he had told her EVERYTHING. Haroon said his mum had got a bit upset and that she’d said she was sorry she hadn’t realised that he had been feeling left out. And then she said she was just TIRED because babies are HARD WORK and that she was going to make it up to him and that the baby definitely wasn’t controlling her mind with alien powers. Then Haroon told us that the baby had been keeping his mum awake at night, too, and that she thought maybe Samir was LONELY in a room by himself because he LOVED being around people and he probably found it hard being on his own at night time. Haroon”
― Pamela Butchart, The Baby Brother From Outer Space!: World Book Day 2018