The Big Breakout by Burhana Islam
Burhana Islam is a secondary school teacher and the author of Muslims Who Changed the World and the My Laugh-Out-Loud Life series of chapter books. She is a storyteller who is passionate about exploring themes of heritage, belonging, identity and faith in her work. This side-splitting illustrated trilogy for readers aged 7+ has been featured in the Read for Empathy collection and the first title, Mayhem Mission, won the Tower Hamlets Book Award. Burhana joins us to talk about the series as the third and final book, The Big Breakout,is published.
Can you tell us a bit about the My Laugh-out-Loud Lifeseries, and this new book which completes the trilogy.
The series follows the life of 10 year old Yusuf Ali Khan, a typical Bangladeshi Muslim lad who seems to have chaos following him wherever he goes. His intentions might be in the right place, but his antics are always landing him in trouble (with hilarious consequences to match). The books are filled with humour and heart, in stories which show Yusuf, his family and his friends all coming together as a celebration of culture, laughter and unconditional love. He’s a typical Northern lad dealing with the timely and universal themes of sibling rivalry, fake news and big feelings.
In this third and final book in the series, Yusuf is back in all his glory as both ‘man-of-the-house’ and Form Captain. Just when he thinks he has all the power he can possibly wield, his sister announces that she’s having a baby, changing his life forever. At the heart of it, this book is ultimately about Yusuf dealing (not so well, may I add) with new changes in his family and what that really means for him. Growing up wasn’t exactly easy and he’s got to come face-to-face with some pretty big feelings to figure himself out.
There are plenty of laughs, but also a lot of heart and big feelings in this series – Yusuf wanting to do the right thing for his family, but often going about it in a hair-brained manner without thinking things through. Did you find it hard to balance those elements?
Because the story is character driven, I always need to know Yusuf’s motivations before I start a book. That will be the essence that drives the plot (whether I’m conscious of it or not). In that sense, the heart is actually there first and the comedy simply comes afterwards. This series was conceived to not only combat stereotypes prevalent about the Muslim community amongst other things, but it was a conscious effort to challenge the ‘funny’ books out there that do more harm than good. Children, by nature, are inherently good. They deserve a rich diet of quality content that reflects that (whatever the medium). My books don’t exactly have clear morals in them, but I’d like to think that my young cast are wholesome characters who have flaws and grow to learn more about themselves. Children do that a lot in real life, usually more than the grown-ups unfortunately.
Do you think the themes of wanting to just be a child, but also feeling the pressure to step up and be more responsible are something all boys of Yusuf’s age can relate to?
I think so. In a day and age like this one, children (now more than ever) have so much information given to them to process. On one hand, they really just want to be themselves. On the other hand, they’re navigating life through a schooling system and an age of social media that places immense pressure on them. From my experience, schools have a lot of pressure to ensure that a child’s ‘flight plan’ of progress is on track and has an upward trend. Children, like adults, are more complex than their flight plans, their targets and their data. In my early teaching career, I was incredibly guilty of trying to ensure that my students were constantly meeting their targets and sometimes I’d look back and think ‘what am I actually focusing on?’. There’s a lot going on in the background for children whether it’s to do with family circumstances, social anxieties and other pressures behind the scenes. At school, you find yourself adopting the role of not only an educator, but a counsellor, a mediator, a mentor, a judge and jury, an advocate and more. Life is more complex and just because you’re a child, it doesn’t mean that this is not the case. I personally had a lot of experience with students who didn’t know how to communicate effectively i.e. express their feelings, turn-take in conversations, talk at me (instead of talking to me). With the rise of social media devices and increased screen-time (on top of the decline of ‘playing out’ after school and the likes) – this is for adults too, it’s sometimes hard to figure yourself out because there are so many voices influencing you and you tend to be left alone with your own feelings. It’s really hard to navigate that without the right skills and tools to do so. In the end, I just prioritised teaching good character, knowing the rest would follow naturally. Anyway, this is a very long winded way of me saying, yes, the pressure is definitely there for all children to balance being a child and having the pressure to ‘grow-up’.
Has your teaching career influenced your writing? (Dear reader, see The Ofsted Inspection chapter). Have you included any of your own teaching experiences or maybe even colleagues (!) in your stories?
Definitely! My teaching experience and writing career probably go hand-in-hand. I once worked at a school that was in Special Measures after an Outstanding streak. That was interesting. There were just so many Ofsted visits and I loved putting that experience into this book – on reflection, it’s definitely easier to see the funnier side of things. Miss Minchell is actually a good friend of mine and I have loved every second of shaping her character. A lot of the things my students have said in passing have just ended up in my books word-for-word. I’ll never forget the day that a seven year oldbrought in a gadget to show everyone at wet break. But that was literally all anyone could do: look at it. He promptly put it away afterwards.
How do you hope schools might use these books?
I want my books in the hands of readers regardless of their background. It’ll be a mirror for some pupils and a window for others, and both are incredibly valuable. The best-case scenario would be to use it as a class reader. I actually have a scheme of work for Upper KS2 and Lower KS3 students that accompanies class sets and it’s fully resourced. Generally speaking, in schools, books shared widely about minority ethnic groups tend to focus on hardship, struggle and a somewhat ‘hero’ narrative. It feels like these characters have the added pressure of having a quality that makes them deserving of the spotlight shed upon them. While those stories are incredibly valuable, readers deserve to have a book about a Muslim protagonist that combats stereotypes in a fun and comical manner – one that is full of heart and deals with big feelings for the ordinary child. Yusuf shares so many traits with your average reader and he has his own quirks too, giving you an insight into his life in such a way that his racial identity is not something he struggles with. It’s just a part of him just like those he represents. Teaching the complexities and nuances of our diverse communities can sometimes be uncomfortable for teachers. Class readers like this are a great place to start.
My Laugh-out-Loud Life: The Big Breakout by Burhana Islam, illustrated by Farah Khandaker, is published 6th April by Knights Of