In 2000, the UN established June 20 as World Refugee Day. This day allows us to shine a spotlight on the bravery, courage, and hardships of refugees. According to the UNCHR, more than 70 million refugees were displaced by the end of 2019. The Homewood Public Library would like to take today to highlight fiction and nonfiction titles within our teen collection that feature stories of refugees. The Children’s Department has also put together a reading list for K-5th graders.
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: The Journey of Doaa Al Zamel: One Teen Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival (Young Readers’) by Melissa Fleming: The story of a young Syrian refugee’s attempt to reach Sweden, focusing on her ordeal in icy waters after the dilapidated fishing vessel in which she was traveling–along with 500 others–sinks. Catalog
We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World by Malala Yousafzai: In her powerful new book, Nobel Peace Prize winner Yousafzai shares her own story of displacement, along with the personal stories of some of the incredible girls she has met on her various journeys to refugee camps and the cities where refugee girls and their families have settled. Catalog Overdrive/Libby
The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown: In the tradition of Don Brown’s critically acclaimed, full-color nonfiction graphic novels The Great American Dust Bowl and Sibert Honor winning Drowned City, The Unwanted is an important, timely, and eye-opening exploration of the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis, exposing the harsh realities of living in, and trying to escape, a war zone. Catalog Hoopla
How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana: The author shares the story of her survival during the Gatumba Massacre–despite losing her mother and sister–and how after moving to America she found healing through art and activism. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla
We Had to Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport by Deborah Hopkinson: Through the moving and often heart-wrenching personal accounts of Kindertransport survivors, critically acclaimed and award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson paints the timely and devastating story of how the rise of Hitler and the Nazis tore apart the lives of so many families and what they were forced to give up in order to save these children.
The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border by Juan Pablo Villalobos: Every year, thousands of migrant children and teens cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The journey is treacherous and sometimes deadly, but worth the risk for migrants who are escaping gang violence and poverty in their home countries. And for those refugees who do succeed? They face an immigration process that is as winding and multi-tiered as the journey that brought them here. Catalog
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park: When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of a safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla
Illegal by Eoin Colfer: A powerfully moving, award-winning graphic novel that explores the current plight of undocumented immigrants from New York Times bestselling author Eoin Colfer and the team behind the Artemis Fowl graphic novels. How can a human being be illegal for simply existing? Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla
Let’s Go Swimming on Doomsday by Natalie C. Anderson: Forced to become a child soldier, a 16-year-old Somali refugee must confront his painful past in this haunting, thrilling tale of loss and redemption ideal for fans of “A Long Way Gone” and “What Is the What.” Catalog
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys: Winter 1945. WWII. Four refugees. Four stories.Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies, war. As thousands desperately flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. But not all promises can be kept . . . Catalog Overdrive/Libby
Without Refuge by Jane Mitchell: Thirteen-year-old Ghalib doesn’t want to leave his home, but Syria has become too dangerous, and his family has no choice but to flee. An award-winning author presents the gripping story of one boy’s journey to find refuge as she pays tribute to struggles millions of Syrians face in today’s real-world crisis. Catalog Hoopla
Refugee 87 by Ele Fountain: In Ethiopia, fourteen-year-old Shif and his best friend Bini embark on a continent-crossing journey of survival after they are imprisoned and become refugees. Catalog Overdrive/Libby
Which Way Is Home? by Maria Kiely: In 1948, following World War II, eleven-year-old Anna, her mother, and older sister must flee Czechoslovakia after Russian Communists take over the government. Includes notes about the author’s family history, on which the story is based. Catalog
I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin: When her beloved country, Chile, is taken over by a militaristic, sadistic government, Celeste is sent to America for her safety and her parents must go into hiding before they “disappear.” Catalog Hoopla
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani: Forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, shy 12-year-old Nisha tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in her diary. Catalog Overdrive/Libby
Dream Country by Shannon Gibney: Spanning two centuries and two continents, [this] is the story of five generations of young people caught in a spiral of death and exile between Liberia and the United States. Catalog
What the Night Sings by Vesper Stamper: If you think you’ve read everything there is to read about the Holocaust in young adult fiction, think again. True, Vesper Stamper’s debut novel, What the Night Sings, contains scenes that have come to be staples of the genre: a Nazi raid, an overcrowded train journey, prisoners starving in concentration camps. But Stamper frames these familiar motifs with a question not often addressed in Holocaust literature: What happens after liberation? Catalog Overdrive/Libby
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez: Three teenage immigrants risk the trip from Guatemala through Mexico to the United States southern border in search of a better life. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla