Bobby Bains Plays a Blinder
A young Sikh footballer reaches out across the generational divide to help a lonely old man in an uplifting story from acclaimed author Bali Rai.
Bobby Bains loves football. He also loves helping other people. As a Sikh, it’s part of his religion. While helping his mum at the community food bank, Bobby meets an old man called Trevor, who seems lonely.
Bobby thinks Trevor would get on well with his nana-ji, his grandad. Both love football and reggae music. But Nana-ji and Trevor have dodgy old knees and can’t run like they used to. So, Bobby hatches a plan to get them playing. They could use the exercise and perhaps Trevor won’t feel so lonely any more.
Will Bobby’s plan work? It’s a big ask, but, after all, if you don’t shoot, you don’t score!
Particularly suitable for readers aged 9+ with a reading age of 8.
Bali Rai was born in Leicester where he grew up in a multicultural community dreaming of playing football for Liverpool FC, being Bob Marley or becoming a writer. He writes the books he would have enjoyed as a teenager and his book Rani and Sukh is a set-text for GCSE English. His novel, Killing Honour, won the North East Teenage Book Award, and was described as “utterly compelling” by The Bookseller.