YA/MG Novels Featuring Refugees
What are they running from?• War/violence• Terrorism• Hunger/poverty• Religious persecution• Political persecution • Racial persecution
A Long Walk to Water• Alternates between two 11-
year olds in Sudan• Nya’s story is set in 2008—
Nya walks 2 hours to get water from a pond, twice each day
• Salva’s story is set in 1985—Salva is a “lost boy” of Sudan
• Themes: survival, importance of clean water
A Time of Miracles• Set in Republic of
Georgia during collapse of the Soviet Union
• 7-year old Blaise flees Georgia with his guardian Gloria
• Themes: family, survival
Bamboo People• 15-year old Chico wants to be
a teacher, but he is instead forced to join the Burmese army.
• Chico befriends 16-year old Tu Reh, who teaches Chico how to survive training in exchange for learning English
• Themes: friendship, survival, importance of learning to read
The Day of the Pelican• Meli is an Albanian girl
living in Kosovo, a country trying to fight off Serbian oppressors
• Themes: homelessness, starvation, illness, poverty
The Good Braider• Free verse• Viola tells the story of
her family’s journey from war-torn Sudan to Cairo to the USA
• Additional themes: adapting to a new culture, parent-child tension in new culture
Now Is the Time for Running• Deo and his older
brother, Innocent flee their war-torn village in Zimbabwe
• Additional themes: soccer, mental illness, poverty
Shooting Kabul
• In 2001, 12-year old Fadi’s parents decide to illegally leave Afghanistan
• Fadi’s little sister gets separated from the family
• Themes: survival, family, perseverance
I Lived on Butterfly Hill• Celeste’s family flees
Chile when artists, protesters, and people who help the needy are declared “subversive” and start disappearing
• Contains illustrations• Themes: protecting
loved ones, generosity, kindness, revolution
Where I Belong
• Set in Somalia• Mahmoud is kidnapped
and held for ransom. • In London, Khadija,
Mahmoud’s sister, tries to earn the ransom money
• Themes: identity, trust, family
The Red Pencil• 12-year old Amira hopes to
attend school, but her Sudanese village is attacked
• After losing everything, Amira walks on foot to a refugee camp
• Free verse with illustrations• Themes: importance of
education, perseverance
Zlata’s Diary
• Has been compared to The Diary of Anne Frank
• 11-year old Zlata witnesses war-torn Sarajevo, food shortages, bombardments, and the deaths of her friends
• Themes: courage, perseverance
Weedflower• 12-year old Sumiko is
American-born Japanese• After Pearl Harbor is
bombed, Sumiko and her family are sent to a Japanese internment camp
• Themes: belonging, friendship, racism, fear
Guantanamo Boy• 15-year old English boy
named Khalid is kidnapped from Pakistan while visiting relatives with his parents
• Taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge
• Themes: freedom, detainee rights
Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town
• A refugee settlement in Georgia becomes home to a youth soccer team made up of refugee children
• Themes: cultural differences, racism, power of play
Image Credits:• Barbed wire (slide 1) courtesy Christian Spies via
Unsplash– https://unsplash.com/search/barbed-wire?
photo=S5XON9lNFvo
• Exit sign (slide 2) courtesy Kev Seto via Unsplash– https://unsplash.com/@kevseto?photo=Jv0TBnjzYNM
• All cover images courtesy Goodreads– www.goodreads.com
