Evie and Maryam's Family Tree

A sensitive and engrossing story about identity, difference and personal history, Hayat's children's debut centres on two schoolgirls investigating their family trees who discover they have much more in common than they thought.

Evie and Maryam are in the same class at school, uneasily thrown together at the start of a new term as they start a project together looking into their family trees.

The two girls don't think they have much in common - Maryam feels like an outsider, and Evie thinks Maryam is a bit odd. But when the two girls each find the same mysterious folder containing documents in a secret language that belong to their grandmothers, they discover their ties go back two generations, all the way to India, to partition, and to two best friends who inspired each other more than they ever know.

A beautifully told historical family-based exploration of identity, inheritance, difference and friendship.

Reviews:

• 'Absorbing and insightful' Book Trust

• 'This heartfelt historical story offers a glimpse into colonial India and shows how the past shapes the present. Highly recommended for UKS2 classes' School Reading List