Refugee by Alan Gratz

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Figure 1. Refugee book cover (2019).

Evaluation of Book

A new twist on the concept of refugee status; Refugee by Alan Gratz gives a glimpse of the lives of three refugee families through the eyes of kids as they take on the challenges of fleeing their own country and finding refuge in another. Josef, age 12-13, Isabel, age 11, and Mahmoud, age 12, tell the stories of their families, each originating in a different country and time period. Their goals remain the same throughout the three parallel lives: keeping their families together while surviving the escape of their home country and finding asylum in foreign lands.

When the reader first sees the cover art and flips through the book, the art lets the reader know that challenges and scary moments will occur, but there is hope. This mood comes from the dark colors and picture choices for Refugee. First, the cover shows a kid in a red lifeboat. He hangs onto the boat because of the choppy water caused by a storm. However, the light shining through the clouds in the distance gives hope because the dark rain storm appears to be breaking. This concept of survival and moving towards something better replays itself throughout the story. Therefore, the cover not only sets the mood, it also reinforces the text. Also, the first page of each chapter shows gray, choppy water with light in the distance. This also draws the reader back to the idea that while more challenges will come, something good will come of all of this.

The best aspects of this book: the layout of the stories, parallels and overlap of each story, and the cliffhangers for each chapter. You start off with an introduction to Josef, a Jewish boy living in Berlin, Germany during the reign of Hitler in 1938. Then Alan Gratz introduces Isabel’s life just outside Havana, Cuba in 1994. Cuba’s hardships after the crumble of the Soviet Union inspire protests because of the living conditions, starvation for many just around the corner. The third story of Mahmoud, in Aleppo, Syria in 2015, tells tales of civil war and survival in a city where the citizens are attacked by the government, rebel fighters, ISIS, and international countries trying to help end the war. Throughout the whole story, each person only gets one chapter at a time, with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. The reader never wants to stop because they need to know what comes next. Also, the idea that three kids around the same age experiencing similar stories shows how refugees experience the same battles, no matter the time period or place. The plot shows all three trying to live in their native country followed by some catalyst that forces them to flee if they want to stay with their family. All use multiple forms of transportation to accomplish their exit and entrance into their new countries and have life changing events happen on boats. And all three take a stand to help their family survive. And the best part comes towards the end of the book when the reader realizes that a person within each story impacts others in the other stories. In fact, a choice of Josef’s will cause a chain of events that brings joy to Mahmoud’s story.

Mahmoud’s story gives the most insight into the plight of a refugee. He notices that the outside world does not like seeing and needing to deal with refugees. They notice differences like Muslims stopping to pray or refugees taking up space. However, the people living normal lives prefer the refugees to stay invisible, something Mahmoud mastered the art of in Syria. This insight lets Mahmoud begin to formulate an understanding of himself and the world: invisible does let you survive for a while, but it also does not give good people a chance to help. And since being invisible does not make changes happen, he needed to find his voice.

Response

While reading Refugee, I did find myself relating to the story on different levels. First, while living in Italy and Egypt, I often befriended refugees. They told me bits of their stories, which helped me find this book believable. And because I witnessed others rebuilding their lives, I personally began to care about the plight of refuges to the point I had volunteers from the camps give presentations to my students. Afterwards, my students moved mountains to help a number of families remain in their asylum countries, successfully making a difference for generations to come. This filled my heart with joy which explains my overall positive reaction to the text and how it agrees with my view of the world. To sum up, I felt fear, heartache, and surges of love fill me while reading which means Alan Gratz writes a great story. Due to this, I plan to read his other books soon.

Conclusion

Alan Gratz’s Refugee shows refugees through the eyes of 11-13-year-olds, something that many do not think about when envisioning a person seeking asylum. Introducing the reader to the idea that a fifth grader in other countries must take on the role of an adult to survive gives new insight into how easy our lives in America really are. This also helps all of us see through the eyes of others, giving us empathy for the plight of our fellow man. Because this message needs to be heard, and this book delivers, I give this book three and a half stars out of four.

Citation

Gratz, A. (2017). Refugee. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Willis, C. (2019). Refugee book cover (photo). Retrieved March 15, 2019 from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PHx8uuNesNJx_BAPrMPDKrvIakiLoVIy/view?usp=sharing