Books related to Refugees ...

I have been intending to write this post for several months, and every time I start it, there seems to be more and more to write. I have decided to split it into two posts. The general theme is about Refugees and I will be providing a review on a number of books.  Still, that feels too short for this important topic so I encourage you to see the display in the library and to watch the video embedded below.   

THE NEWCOMERS by Helen Thorpe is subtitled “finding refuge, friendship, and hope in an American classroom” and that makes this book very applicable for our high school students.  Of course, our Social Studies classes and others study the impact of natural disasters, of war, and of discrimination on refugees from countries like Syria and Myanmar, but those situations can seem far away and all too unreal to our students. Instead, Thorpe shares the stories of twenty-two students from Room 142 in Denver’s South Side High School. The fact that the school year involved, 2015-16, is just prior to the presidential election makes these tales even more poignant and relatable due to their recency. 

All of these young people have come to America from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East with very limited English skills and their teacher, Mr. Williams, sets out to help them assimilate. In some ways, this is a coming of age story, but it also serves as a moral fable. Kirkus says reading THE NEWCOMERS will create “a wider, more sympathetic view of the world and its inhabitants - certainly something we need right now.” Our students have previously read Kids of Kabul and asked for more – I am hoping that they will embrace and learn from this important book as well. THE NEWCOMERS received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Here, too, is link to an author interview by Larry Ferlazzo for Ed Week.

RESCUE by David Miliband is compassionate, inspirational, and humbling. Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), subtitles his first book “Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time.” He explains that his own parents were refugees and offers a call for action in both the book and this video (online here, too):    

Miliband cites numerous statistics, such as “60 percent of all refugees live in urban areas, not camps.” He describes the differences in needs for housing, food, education and health care as well as the impact on the cities’ infrastructure. Continuing, he notes that “the assumption that the majority of refugees live in camps as opposed to urban areas is not the only mismatch between perception and reality.”  Another has to do with long-term displacement where, for example, approximately a third of the 330,000 refugees in a camp in eastern Kenya were born there. That camp is called Dadaab and was built 25 years ago (see also City of Thorns by Ben Rawlence). Clearly, these numbers are disturbing – can you imagine living your entire life in a camp?

I also wanted to highlight the graphic novel, THE BEST WE COULD DO by debut author Thi Bui.  In this illustrated memoir, she relates the events surrounding refugees from an earlier generation.  Her family fled the fall of Saigon in the 1970s and eventually learned to adapt to life in America. This work received multiple starred reviews: Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal and School Library Journal (which said, "Curricular tie-ins include immigration policies, refugees, colonization, and the Vietnam War. ... Hand this essential volume to teens ..."). 

As noted, there are so many titles on this topic worth reading – if you have one to suggest let us know and I will post more soon.