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Trebinčević, Kenan , Shapiro, Susan

World in Between: Based on a True Refugee Story

384 pp. | HarperCollins/Clarion | July, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-358-43987-5 $16.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-358-44093-2 $9.99
(2) 4-6 Eleven-year-old Kenan Trebinčević is growing up in Brčko, Bosnia, in 1992. He enjoys his life--home, friends at school, soccer--but as Muslims living in a divided Yugoslavia, he and his family are in danger. Serbs control the military and see Bosnian Muslims as rebels and traitors. Kenan's friends begin to taunt him at school. Then there is violence in the streets (including a horrifying scene in which his teacher holds a gun to Kenan's head); homes are burned; entire families are shot. With Serbs having wiped out the family's bank account, the Trebinčevićs are penniless; they have no running water; and food is scarce. Kenan doesn't understand: "But we're all Yugoslavians. How could our own people be hunting us like animals?" Kenan's family decides to escape from Bosnia, and a nerve-wracking odyssey ensues through dangerous checkpoints to Vienna and on to America. Scenes come alive through the first-person voice and abundant dialogue. This "Muslim-Jewish collaboration" between authors Trebinčević and Shapiro follows after their joint effort on The Bosnia List (2014), an adult memoir. This is a long, intricately detailed narrative that effectively weaves in enough historical background to make events understandable for young readers. (Per an appended author's note: "All the historical events are true. Some names, dates, and details have been condensed or changed to protect privacy, and for literary reasons.")
Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

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