Refugee~ Alan Gratz

Happy Halloween, friends! Today I was a Crayola crayon at school and insisted that every student call me Miss Crayola! I will forever be the cringiest and dorkiest teacher they ever have. Case in point--I own a raincoat to match my dog.

Now, to the important content: Refugee, by Alan Gratz. This novel is exceptional. Each chapter alternates between three different characters: Josef, from Berlin, Germany in 1938; Isabel, from Havana, Cuba in 1994, and Mahmoud, from Aleppo, Syria in 2015.  While these characters are very different, they all have one thing in common. They are refugees, fleeing home and fighting for their lives.

Josef and his family are trying to escape to Cuba to find safety and dignity far from Adolph Hitler’s rule.  Isabel and her family decide to take their chances and flee the shores of Cuba on a tiny homemade boat in order to find freedom from Fidel Castro and the starved communist country in Florida. Mahmoud’s story is one that is, tragically, ongoing for many Syrians. He and his family fight desperately to escape Bashar al-Assad’s violent rule by fleeing to Europe by car, on foot, and overseas in an inflatable raft.

Every chapter leaves readers hanging, and I found myself flying through each story, always eager to find out what happened next. This novel will not only captivate students, but it will also open their eyes to the incredibly traumatic and current experiences of refugees from around the world.

Maturity: 2/4

While this novel does not have any inappropriate scenes, its content is generally mature. The trauma experienced by these refugees is incredibly heart-wrenching, so I recommend making students aware ahead of time. I recommend this novel to students age 11+.

Pages: 317

Lexile: 800L

This novel is often a difficult read for students because the plotline switches every chapter. Especially in the beginning, students may benefit from frequent check-ins for comprehension. Notes jotted down in a notebook might help, too!

Lexile is a score that helps educators and parents match students with an appropriate text. A Lexile score is a measure of both a child’s reading ability and a text difficulty. However, Lexile does not take into account the content of a novel. So, pairing readers with a text is a complex process, and knowledge of a novel’s themes and plot is necessary to make a high-quality recommendation.

If you are curious about the grade-level equivalent to Lexile scores, check out the conversion chart here!

♥ RileyReadsYA ♥