Ramzee Books

This laugh-out-loud book is jam-packed with funny black-and-white pictures reminiscent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. ‘The Cheat Book’ was a delight to read with hilarious, likeable characters. The author, Ramzee has taken the subject of refugees and fitting in and written about it sensitively but also in an entertaining way. I loved how I learnt about Somali culture and the references to Islam were interesting like the fact that Kamal has two angels on his shoulders, who write down his good and bad deeds. Readers, young and old may relate to moving to a strange, new place and starting over. Most will be able to relate to the worry of having to make new friends and only showing certain aspects of yourself so others can like you. In this book, Kamal wants to be cool, and have a seat at the cool table.

There’s a new app called Popstock which gives everyone a ranking out of 10. Unfortunately, for Kamal, he’s a 0, something that has never happened before. But fortunately for Kamal, he finds the Cheat Book in the library. It’s full of lifehacks that help him work his ranking up to 10. The ending is empowering despite Kamal getting booed off the stage. I look forward to reading volume two and seeing what Kamal and his friends, JoJo and Wing get up to.