Children around the world seek refuge because of war, famine, persecution, and other horrors. Others are waiting in or forced to move to resettlement camps. Thanks to librarian Analine Johnson of Rodolfo Centeno Elementary School in Laredo, Texas and the child_lit listserv, here's a list of books illuminating their experiences, past and present, categorized by grade levels:
Lower Elementary
- How Many Days To America? by Eve Bunting
- So Far From The Sea by Eve Bunting
- Rebekkah's Journey by Ann Burg
- Dia's Story Cloth by Dia Cha
- The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland
- The Roses In My Carpets by Rukhsana Khan
- Chachaji's Cup by Uma Krishnaswami
- The Place Where Sunflowers Grow by Amy Lee-Tai
- Ziba Came On A Boat by Liz Lofthouse
- Home and Away by John Marsden
- Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
- Passage To Freedom: The Sugihara Story by Ken Mochizuki
- The Silence Seeker by Ben Morley
- Hamzat's Journey by Anthony Robinson
- Angel Child, Dragon Child by Michele Maria Surat
- The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida
- Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams
- Naming Liberty by Jane Yolen
Upper Elementary
- When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
- Christophe's Story by Nikki Cornwell
- Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman
- Girl Underground by Morris Gleitzman
- Lucky Baseball: My Story In A Japanese-American Internment Camp by Suzanne Lieurance
- A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord
- Lost For Words by Elizabeth Lutzeier
- Half Spoon of Rice by Icy Smith
- Brothers In Hope: The Story Of The Lost Boys Of Sudan by Mary Williams
Grades 5-9
- All The Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
- Give Me Shelter by Nikki Cornwell
- The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
- Mud City by Deborah Ellis
- Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis
- Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipović
- Warriors In The Crossfire by Nancy Bo Flood
- Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse
- A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata
- Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
- The Storyteller's Beads by Jane Kurtz
- The Return by Sonia Levitin
- Goodnight, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
- Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong
- Good Night, Maman by Norma Fox Mazer
- The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson
- Journey of Dreams by Marge Pellegrino
- Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins
- Tangled Threads by Peggy Deitz Shea
- Whispering Cloth by Peggy Deitz Shea
- One Day We Had to Run by Sybella Wilkes
High School
- Under the Domim Tree by Gila Almagor
- Two Suns in the Sky by Miriam Bat-Ami
- Libertad by Alma Fullerton
- No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War by Anita Lobel
- Faraway Home by Marilyn Taylor
- Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
Suggestions? Additions? Corrections? Kindly leave them in the comments and I'll make the changes.
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One out of ten soldiers in the world is a child.
In the last decade two million children were killed in armed conflicts.
These are only a few of the saddening statistics mentioned in Janet Wilson’s book, One Peace: True Stories of Young Activists. With such shocking statistics highlighted, I expected this book to be heavy and unsuitable for my ten-year-old son but after reading through it, I realized the message in the book is about hope (even in the face of such horrors). Janet Wilson has a passion for bringing awareness to these and other issues affecting children in the world. To learn a little more about Janet click here.
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If you're including high school books on this list, Pegi Deitz Shea has a new novel about a Liberian boy, adopted by an African-American family, and on the cusp of adulthood tormented by the demons of his past. It's called ABE IN ARMS and is published by a new small press, PM Press.
My 2009 YA novel GRINGOLANDIA, also published by the small press Curbstone Press, depicts a 17-year-old Chilean refugee and his family in the United States, living with the aftermath of his father's imprisonment and torture under the Pinochet dictatorship. It has received a number of distinctions and awards and was just recommended in School Library Journal's list of books about culture clash, immigrants, and refugees (5/1/10 issue).
One of my favorites is The Silver Sword, by Ian Serraillier -- a family of Polish children journey across Germany at the end of WW II to a chidren's refugee settlement in Switzerland.
Thanks, I added your suggestions.
Another one for grades 5-9 is THE CLAY MARBLE by Minfong Ho.
One about Cambodian refugees, that has always stayed with me, is Linda Crew's book (high school) "Children of the River." I visited her website to make sure I got title, subject, author correct and found wonderful story that I think you will delight in:
http://www.lindacrew.com/children_of_the_river_55440.htm
Holocaust Dutch returning to normalcy: (I guess middle grades)
Anna is still here and Hide and Seek, both by Ida Vos.
Separated from parents during Holocaust: (high school)A pocket full of seeds by Marilyn Sachs
One that I consider more college than hs but there isn't really a section for that and it's shelved in the hs/YA section is Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, about a girl's discovery of her grandmother's refugee/resistance experience during the Holocaust in Poland, her grandmother who then was in German camps in the U.S. if I recall correctly. The book is woven with the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty and contemporary Poland (1980s, where jeans were sold on the black market.)
These are some of my favorite books. Somehow as a girl who has lived many places and not really called any of them "home" but for the "heart" that lived there, I devour these books for the kindred spirits I find inside their pages.
xo,
SL
Has Guantanamo Boy by Anna Perera reached the States yet?
Hmm, if we're counting Goodnight, Mr. Tom, I think we have to count Robert Westall's brilliant The Kingdom by the Sea.
Hi, Mitali,
Thank you for listing my book The Lucky Baseball: My Story in a Japanese-American Internment Camp.
Thanks for adding my novel to the list. By the way, I just posted a review of ABE IN ARMS to the web site of our local daily, the (Albany) Times-Union: http://blog.timesunion.com/wagingpeace/the-fate-of-child-soldiers-a-review-of-abe-in-arms/1673/
This wasn't written for high schoolers, but Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream (by Jay Feldman) is about a baseball scout and a Japanese pitcher in an internment camp in Arizona.
Hi, Mitali,
I haven't read Warren St. John's "Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town" (about youth sports), but it might be good for high school:
http://outcastsunited.com/. St. John (@warrenstjohn) is a good reporter, and the team got a lot of coverage.
Jan
I highly recommend Finikin of the Rock by Marlina Marchetta. A Fantasy, but with strong themes of refugees, resettlement, national and ethnic identity, leadership, etc.
Sarah