Refugee by Alan Gratz

After reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Refugee was recommended to me by two great middle school teachers – my high school classmate Andrea and my sons’ teacher Jenny.  I know why they recommended it as this was another book that I literally couldn’t put down as I was so engrossed in the story.  Not only is Refugee a great story, but it’s a really important story that I think everyone should read.  Now that I am finished with it, it’s moving on to my 11-year-old son Daniel to read. He has enjoyed other books by this author.

Refugee tells three parallel stories.  The first story is set in 1930’s Germany.  Josef is a Jewish boy who is trying to escape Nazi Germany with his family.  They take a ship, the St. Louis, to Cuba to start a new life.  

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994 who escapes with her family and family’s friends on a raft towards the United States and freedom.  Castro has said that people can leave Cuba and its riots and starvation without fear of punishment.  Isabel’s family takes the risk for a better life.  

Mahmoud is a boy living in war torn Syria in 2015.  After his apartment building is destroyed as well as most of the City, he and his family make the daring trek to Germany and a peaceful life.  

Refugee is a real nail biter and all stories do not end happily.  It is an important story that really delves into what a refugee is, they are just families looking for a better life.  They all face terrible circumstances in their homes.  They would like to live their lives, but staying is a threat to their lives.  They just want to live a happy safe life with their family.  It was interesting to me how all of the stories paralleled throughout history.  I really liked how the stories were tied together at the end and thought it was interesting over time which countries were the safe countries to migrate to.  Would a refugee in 1939 ever think that Germany would be the place to migrate in 2015?

Favorite Quotes:

“They only see us when we do something, they don’t want us to do.”

“’We didn’t ask for civil war!  We didn’t want to leave our homes!’ another man yelled.  ‘We’re refugees!’ Mahmoud yelled, unable to stay silent any long.  ‘We need help!’”

Overall, Refugee is an excellent book that deals with historical and modern issues of refugees trying to seek a better life and the perils that they face.  This would be a great book to discuss with middle school students.

Book Source:  Holy Rosary School Copy