Mina and the Whole Wide World

A powerful story about a young girl, Mina, and how she copes when her family take in a refugee boy and give away what was meant to be her first very-own bedroom.

Mina wants her own bedroom more than anything else in the whole wide world. And it’s almost ready! Just one more lick of sunny yellow paint and it’s hers.

But when Mina's parents take in an unexpected guest, they give her room away. At first, Mina is too upset to speak. She doesn’t care that this new boy, Azzami, needs a place to stay.

At school, the other kids call Azzami names, and Mina wishes he’d stand up for himself. Then she sees his drawings, and for the first time really thinks about the life of the quiet boy in front of her.

Here is a story about finding friendship where you least expect it and making room for everyone across this big wide world.

About the Author

Sherryl Clark is a writer, editor and writing teacher with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults and a PhD in Creative Writing. She has been writing poems and stories for children for over twenty years. Her verse novel, Farm Kid, won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Children’s Books in 2005 and Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!) was an Honour Book in the 2008 Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.

Sherryl worked in community writing for many years and taught professional writing and editing at Victoria University TAFE for over two decades. She now writes full-time.