REFUGEE by Alan Gratz

Gratz, Alan. REFUGEE. Scholastic, 2017. 

Summary

Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are all 3 young people that must escape terrible circumstances in their home countries. 

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. 

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. 

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. 

All three must escape with their families in search of refuge. Each face unimaginable trials and dangers on their journey, but all have the hope of tomorrow. And even though the three young refugess are from different countries and decades, their stories are connected in a surprising way.

My Review 

Alan Gratz does an amazing job of building the three characters throughout the story. The cliff-hanger endings of each chapter keep the reader interested, and makes the book hard to put down. The only characters that could have used more depth is in Isabel's story. The number of people on the boat, and we don't ever really get to know any of them. I would have liked to know more about Lito. 

The stories are historically acurate, and Gratz gives an author's note at the end going deeper into the historical facts. He does admit to using artistic licensing to make parts of the story flow better. 

I can't say enough about how emotional and powerful the stories are in this book. The importance of family is an important theme throughout the book, as well as over coming hardships. I highly recommend this book for middle school students and up. Every adult should read this book! 

Bluebonnet Book 

After reading this book, I am having a hard time understanding why this was placed on the Bluebonnet List. For those of you that don't know, the Bluebonnet List is a list of 20 books recommended for 3rd - 6th graders in Texas. Students that read 5 or more books are typically rewarded by their school librarian and get the chance to vote on the winning book. 

While this book is amazing and I think everyone should read it, the book is definitely for grades 6 and up. Possbily 5th graders that are emotionally mature. As school librarians, it is our job to ensure that the materials in our library are age appropriate and appropriate for the emotional development of our students. This book is highly intense with violent scenes that are absolutely not age appropriate for 3rd graders. 

I urge every Texas librarian to read this book, and before recommending this to your students, know your students emotional maturity level. Yes, this is factual information and events that are really happening in our world. However, many of our younger students are not ready for this level of violence and intense scenes.

**According to professional book reviews, this book is appropriate for grades 7 and up.