The Little Soldier (Black Apples) [Paperback]

"A powerful and moving tale of human conflict, pride and friendship"

When Kaninda survives a brutal attack on his village in East Africa he joins the rebel army, where he's trained to carry weapons, and use them.
But aid workers take him to London, to a new family and a comprehensive school. Clan and tribal conflicts are everywhere, and on the streets it's estate versus estate, urban tribe against urban tribe.
All Kaninda wants it to get back to his own war and take revenge on his enemies. But together with Laura Rose, the daughter of his new family, he is drawn into a dangerous local conflict that is spiraling out of control.

Bernard Ashley is one of the top writers for teenagers today. Drawing on his experience as a headteacher in a South London school he writes exciting, hard-hitting stories for the young adult reader plus picture book and younger fiction texts. \n \nBernard`s first novel, The Trouble with Donovan Croft won the `Other Award`, an alternative to the Carnegie Award and since then Bernard has written extensively both for television and the children`s book market. His adaptation of his own novel Dodgem won the Royal Television Society Award for the Best Children`s Entertainment Programme. \n \nBernard has written a number of successful novels for Orchard Books. Tiger Without Teeth was chosen as the Guardian`s Children`s Book of the Week, Little Soldier about the gang-run estates of inner London was shortlisted for both the Carnegie and Guardian Fiction Award and Revenge House a hard-hitting crime thriller are all typical of Bernard`s highly charged, gritty approach. \n \nBernard Ashley lives in South East London only a street or so from where he was born. During his time as a teacher and headteacher he worked in Kent, Hertfordshire, Newham and Greenwich. \n \nVisit Bernard Ashley at: www.bashley.com