Summary:
Refugee is three stories in one. They are all connected, but you don’t find out how until near the end.
The first is about Josef, a Jewish boy in the 1930s, whose family is traveling on a ship to Cuba to escape the concentration camps.
The second story is about a young Cuban girl, Isabel, who is escaping the protests and riots of 1944.
The third is Mahmoud’s story. He and his family are escaping the Syrian War of 2015.
What I Loved:
It was engaging. I seriously couldn’t put it down. Every chapter ends with a crisis to be solved. The stories “take turns” so that while you are reading one character’s story, you are also waiting to see what happens to the others’. It was very well planned, leaving the reader wanting more.
I loved the way that the author described the different characters’ backstories, cultures, and religions. The author honestly described what the characters would have thought or done in their situations based on their beliefs. The reader got to learn about different religions, as well as the experiences of refugees.
The writing was beautiful. I loved the descriptions for almost every place the characters landed. They were very vivid and easy to imagine. The writing was also beautiful because it was inspirational and forced the reader to think about the events.
I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but let me add that the illustrator did a GREAT job!
What I Didn’t Love:
There were some minor cultural details. For example, Mahmoud watched soccer on the TV in a ship to Greece. I don’t think they call it “soccer” in Greece, but the author may have put that in there because he was writing to an American audience.
The author mentioned modern-day apps and businesses in Mahmoud’s story, which takes place in 2015. This is usually a good thing except that, in this case, it took away from the story. I understand that the author was trying to reinforce the fact that it took place in modern times, but sometimes they were mentioned almost out of nowhere.
Quotes:
“If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here.”
“All my life, I kept waiting for things to get better. For the bright promise of mañana. But a funny thing happened while I was waiting for the world to change, Chabele: It didn’t. Because I didn’t change it.”
My Rating:
5/5 stars
Find Refugee on the web
Find Alan Gratz on the web:
What you can do:
Refugee is about three children who escape the terrors of war, poverty, and prejudice. In the author’s note, Alan Gratz mentioned two great websites that help refugee children by giving humanitarian aid and other much-needed resources. By donating to these awesome organizations, you help children around the world who are in similar situations to the characters’.
Here they are:
Save the Children and UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund)
Have you read Refugee? If so, what did you think? Do you know of any other books about refugees, or even books with the same writing style?
Malia says
That picture with cupcake!?
ElizabethAnne Andrews says
I know!! She’s a cutie.