SuitabookLike a Brother
Nathanael Lessore
- Reading
- Read alongside the child if possible, pausing after clashes or difficult disclosures. Notice whose feelings receive attention, whether accountability accompanies empathy, and how humour changes the emotional tone.
- Themes
- From conflict to family connection: Owais’s settled life is disrupted when Abass arrives, and their difficult relationship develops towards becoming more like brothers. The book presents this favourably.
- Understanding harmful behaviour: Abass’s attitudes and inappropriate behaviour create conflict, while the story links them to defensive responses and learned ideas. The book presents competing or mixed signals about this.
- Humour alongside vulnerability: Owais uses jokes and a comedic persona while facing uncertainty; the cousins’ story includes heartfelt and reflective moments. Humour appears to make emotionally difficult material more approachable without removing the characters’ vulnerability.
- Worth knowing
- Expect emotionally weighty material beneath the jokes: bereavement, neglect, an unreliable and challenging parent, police trouble, gang culture, homophobia, misogyny and conflict around harmful attitudes.