'Boy 87' blew me away. It was the first of Ele Fountain's books I read, and won multiple book awards in the year it was published. In an accessible, fast-paced, and gripping narrative, Fountain shows how a life can be turned upside-down. Shif lives a normal life in an unspecified country in Africa (Fountain never betrays the specifics of the country or culture in which she sets her stories - an interesting quirk which enables her to write without constarint, but also renders her books more universal in impact), until soldiers knock on his door and he knows he is no longer safe. His escape and perilous journey, always with the threat of capture on his tail, mirror that of countless refugees across the world fleeing home and on the run from corrupt and lawless regimes. His innocence and youth create and instant connection with the reader, while his tenacity and resilience will both inspire empathy and stir up a sense powerful sense of injustice in a young reader. It's an essential read for teens and for adults too in a world where we all need to see and feel the personal stories behind the news headlines in order to grow in compassion and stirred to make a difference.