by Alan Gratz
Alan Gratz expertly knits together the stories of three refugee children from different time periods in history. Josef lives in 1938 Berlin, Isabel in 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud in 2015 Syria. The families of all three embark on dangerous journeys to escape their circumstances in a quest to protect the ones they love and to better their situation.
Each chapter is told from the perspective of Josef, Isabel, or Mahmoud. The chapters alternate between their stories. I started out reading one chapter per day, so the layout was a bit confusing and the details of the individual stories were hard to remember by the time I cycled back through. If you are going to read the book in this manner, I recommend jotting down some brief notes to help you keep the characters straight. However, once I sat down for multiple hours and read through numerous chapters, it was easy to retain the details.
Refugee is a historical fiction novel and Gratz does a fantastic job including details of rea-life events in the stories. Of Gratz's novels, this is currently my favorite. All three stories are gripping and will pull you in. As a bonus, Gratz brings the tales together at the end in an unexpected way. This book helped me to better understand the plight of the refugee and to question my beliefs regarding related national policies. I'm sure it will pull at your heart strings as well!
Reading Level: 6.1
Interest Level: 5-8
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