Kick the Moon
A powerful, compelling novel from the critically-acclaimed author of the Branford Boase-winning I Am Thunder, about making friends, and breaking them too.
Fifteen-year-old Ilyas is under pressure from everyone: GCSE's are looming and his teachers just won't let up, his dad wants him to join the family business and his mates don't care about any of it. There's no space in Ilyas' life to just be a teenager.
Serving detention one day, Ilyas finds a kindred spirit in Kelly Matthews, who is fed up with being pigeonholed as the good girl, and their friendship blows the social strata of high school wide open. But when Kelly catches the eye of one of the local bad boys, Imran, he decides to seduce her for a bet – and Ilyas is faced with losing the only person who understands him. Standing up to Imran puts Ilyas' family at risk, but it's time for him to be the superhero he draws in his comic-books, and go kick the moon.
Kick the Moon, is Muhammad Khan's explosive second novel, with original comic-book art from Amrit Birdi, bestselling illustrator of Username:Evie.
'Funny, angry, powerful' Patrice Lawrence, award-winning author of OrangeBoy
'A powerful novel that encapsulates the experiences of teenage boys with wit and heroism' Nikesh Shukla, author of Run Riot
'[Written] with humour and empathy' Independent
'[An] ambitious, wryly funny, optimistic-against-the-odds novel' Times Literary Supplement
'Khan's gift for authentic characters and believable dialogue makes his writing sing' Bookseller
Muhammad Khan is an engineer, a secondary-school maths teacher, and now a YA author! He takes his inspiration from the children he teaches, as well as his own upbringing as a British-born Pakistani. He lives in South London and has an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary's. His debut novel I Am Thunder won the Branford Boase First Novel Award, the 2018 Great Reads Award and a number of regional awards. His second novel, Kick the Moon is also published by Macmillan Children's Books.
Amrit Birdi is a No.1 bestselling comic book artist, best known for illustrating Joe Sugg’s Username:Evie series. He and his team have delivered comic art, concept design, storyboards and commercial illustration for international brands and publishers such as Netflix, Square Enix, SKY, Porsche, Universal, Hachette, Pepsi Co, ITV, Ubisoft, Nike, Warner Bros and Titan Comics.