Refugee by Alan Gratz

2017 Copyright MG

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Grade Level: 5^th – 8th

Reading Level: 5^th Grade (800 Lexile) 353 pages

Publisher: Scholastic Press (July 25, 2017)

My Rating: 5 out of 4

Readability: Intense and hard to put down. Maybe a Newbery contender?

MHL Division: Division 2

Summary: 

Tells the story of three different children and their families seeking refuge from the 1930’s, 1994, and 2015.

This book is a must read for adults as well as middle grade readers. It is an intense adventure story that is woven around three children and their families as they seek refuge from a country that no longer can be their home. One story is about Josef and his family in the 1930’s as they take a cruise ship from Germany to Cuba to escape Nazi persecution, only to be turned away. A Cuban family in 1994 takes a homemade raft out to sea hoping to make it to Florida soil to start a better life. A family from war torn Syria flees to Europe only to be detained again and again in their journey. All the stories go back and forth and the chapter’s cliff hangers often reflect the beginning of the next story. It is an amazing presentation of three stories and how they weave together a similar story of a refugee and the hardship and determination they bring.