Oliver Phommavanh

Publisher's plot summary:
Albert (Lengy) Lengviriyakul, is fed up with being Thai. His parents own a Thai restaurant with the cheesy name of Thai-riffic! and Lengy is sick of being his father's curry guinea pig, and is longing to just eat pizza! At school he is a bit of a troublemaker, going to any lengths to hide his background. But when his best friend decides to become Thai for a day for a school project, Lengy comes to the realisation that there may just be some pretty cool things about his culture.

Good for younger readers. A bit like DOAWK.… (altro)

Not bad. Basically Raymond is in Grade 6 at a Primary School in the outer western suburbs of Sydney that has a really bad reputation. Their principals keep leaving and Ray is resigned to the torment from his cousin to leave the "bad" school as he only has 1 year left. Then suddenly they have a new Principal who decides to elect some student body leaders and Ray goes along with his best mate Zain because he is a follower, not a believer.
The Principal, Mr Humble , sees something in Ray that he can't see himself and appoints Ray, Zain and two girls as leaders. Unfortunately, they seem to disagree on everything. Who can unite them in their quest to raise enough money for new airconditioners so that Ray's little sister can concentrate in class. Nice working of the Grade 6 ethos that you are doing something for the FUTURE, not for the NOW and Ray proves that he can be a leader not a follower.
For fans of Phommavanh's other books ( Weirdo etc) and also the DOAWK series - except set in Australia with more multicultural bent . Ray's family is from the Phillipines.… (altro)