The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q. Rauf

The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q. Rauf is a heartfelt novel about a boy named Hector. Hector and his friends Will and Katie steal candy from the younger children, play pranks on the teachers, and trick the other students into embarrassing themselves. However, one day, Hector takes his pranks a little too far when he tricks a homeless man, Thomas. Hector pushes Thomas’s shopping cart with all of his items into the bottom of a lake. A fellow schoolmate, Mei-Li sees him and is disgusted by his actions.

The next day, Hector sees a news page and reads that the Paddington Bear statue has been stolen. The thieves sprayed three yellow lines onto the ground. The three yellow lines mean something in “the hobo code” in other words, a code the homeless use to communicate, is the thief a real homeless person or are they just trying to shift the blame?

Later on, Hector sees a homeless man—someone that looks a lot like Thomas— disable the security cameras and lights at the statue of Anteros in Piccadilly Circus. Afterward, Hector goes to the police station and confesses what he saw, he describes Thomas to the police officers even though he thinks that the thief didn’t quite look exactly like him. Mei-Li hears of this and knows that Thomas is innocent. When she convinces Hector of this, they all understand that they have to prove Thomas’s innocence. On the journey, they employ the help of other homeless people including Catwoman and Mason. Hector goes through an adventure, both physically and mentally in the story.

I thought that it was amazing to read a story about homeless people. Usually, books don’t even mention them and in real life, it seems that not that many people care about the homeless. This novel has made me look at life in a different way, it’s stunning how a book can change your life this way.