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246 pp.
| Candlewick |
May, 2020 |
TradeISBN 978-0-7636-7960-6$24.99
(2)
YA
Hewing to a definition of refugees as "people who are forced to leave their country because they are being persecuted," Kuklin profiles five such young adults: Fraidoon/Fred from Afghanistan; Hei Blut/Nathan from Myanmar; Nyarout from South Sudan; Shireen from Iraq; and Dieudonné from Burundi. Their common bond is Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, "one of the most successful resettlement programs in the country," which sponsored or cared for each of these intrepid survivors. While each lengthy profile--told in the first person and illustrated with Kuklin's full-color photographs--covers the expanse of each subject's story, Kuklin chooses one or another stage of the journey to highlight, from the red tape Fraidoon encountered despite his work as a translator for the American forces fighting the Taliban, to the slavery endured by Shireen, a Yazidi, at the hands of ISIS. The circumstances of all five refugees were perilous and frightening; their tenacity and courage (and even humor) are salutary. An exemplary appendix of notes and resources broadens the impact of the individual accounts; the accounts themselves personalize the crisis and statistics. Index not seen.
Reviewer: Roger Sutton
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2020