A Different Kind of Freedom: A Romani Story
by Richard O'Neill
In Edwardian era Sheffield, Lijah is developing a passion for football, and he is very good at it. Unfortunately, his father thinks it’s a daft game which Romani people should stay away from. Lijah is torn between the feeling of freedom and power that he gets from playing football, and love for his family and their traditions. Can he find a way to do what he has set his heart on, without disrespecting his father and losing touch with his family’s way of life? A thoughtful novel by an author from a traditional nomadic Romani community in England, this book is part of Scholastic’s excellent Voices series of historical fiction.
Ages 8-12
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“Football was not, back in the 1970s, a Romani game. I would wander up to a caravan site with a football under my arm, and people would look at me like I was an alien. Nobody wanted to play. My dad, God love him, would stand there and let me take shots at him, but he had no interest in it. I went to lots of different schools, and I found that football was a quick way of getting on with people. And I was good at it. As an adult, I have been lucky enough to work with professional footballers on the training side, on the motivational side. When you are passionate about something and you haven’t got anybody from your community who has a connection to it, you have a bit of a mountain to climb to find somewhere to play. If it’s actually against your culture, then you’ve got another hurdle to overcome. That’s what I wanted to show in the book with the main character, Lijah. He’s brilliant at football, but his family don’t want him to play.” Read more...
Richard O'Neill, Children's Author
