Pitching Refugee
A heart-wrenching page-turner that tackles critical social themes for children
By Sarah Reinprecht-Lackner
Written for middle graders, Refugee, by Alan Gratz, follows three young teens from different eras as they escape their homes in search of a better life. Joseph, a Jewish boy, lives in Nazi Germany as his family is forced to leave their home in 1939, so they board the MS St. Louis, going to Cuba. Over half a century later, Isabel’s family leaves dictatorial Cuba in the midst of riots in 1994, trying to arrive in Miami, Florida on their homemade raft. In 2015, a Muslim boy named Mahmoud and his family flee their city of Aleppo, Syria, as it is bombed and destroyed. They hope to arrive in Germany to establish a new life in safety.
Although the book is heart-wrenching, all three stories overflow with hope and the magnificent, endearing personalities of the young people whose lives we, as readers, follow shine through in them. The writing is gripping, and the book is a real page-turner that quickly leads us to be thoroughly invested in the lives of the many people it describes. Unsurprisingly, it is highly praised and has also won a plethora of awards since being published in 2017.
Why this book?
Well, firstly, as mentioned, it’s an amazing read. Secondly, the issues tackled in the book are important for our societies as they are still current and most likely always will be. Immigration shaped and shapes our world, and many of those stories are forced migrations – a means to escape a violent home, as told in this book. Though they are often horribly devastating stories and circumstances, such issues need to be talked about with children as well.
Why talk about social issues ?
In an interview with the New York Times, Alan Gratz states that “More and more, middle-grade readers are choosing to read books that tackle social issues because the social issues have come to them” and that this forces them to shape their view of the world at a young age (Jordan). In part, I think this is why his book is as impactful: in his author’s note at the end, Alan Gratz takes the time to separate the fiction from the non-fiction, explaining the truths behind the told stories and the actual situations, which is surely an amazing way to start a discussion with children about migration and refugees in today’s world.
Refugee helps humanize those people and stories which are often just told in reports and brings them back into the spotlight. In fact, during his journey, Mahmoud reflects on what it means to be visible or invisible to others, as refugees: “If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here" (Gratz 214). This idea is present throughout the whole book, and ultimately it helps readers to be more empathetic, as it gives us a perfect window into different lives.
And this, a new study made in Northern Ireland has found, seems to be particularly important to help support refugee children better once they arrive at their destinations: in the article “Why children need to hear refugee stories,” James McConchie explains how children who have heard about the refugees stories tend to be more empathic and helpful to children who have just newly arrived at their schools. Thus, this book is important as it helps refugee children be seen, which is not only crucial for the characters in the book (as we just saw with Mahmoud), but also for those who see themselves in the stories and for those who can use them as windows, to be more empathic and helpful in the future.
Windows and mirrors for readers
As such, the book is an important window for many of us, showing young readers a life they don’t know to help them understand it better. But Refugee can also be a mirror to many, with its three main characters, who present a diversity of ethnicities, religions and cultures, tied together by their similar paths in life. Still, their stories are distinct, and each character is unique. To portray these teens and their experiences in a realistic way, Alan Gratz started by researching all three stories and cultures, to understand his characters better. On his channel, he explains his method and his search for creating real, humane people, even when their experiences were vastly different from his, stating that though the characters are fictional, their stories are very real. To achieve realistic stories and characters, Gratz combined the many real events from stories he read into the lives of Isabel, Joseph and Mahmoud, and he also had many proofreaders who examined the characters to make their stories accurate – especially Mahmoud’s. He explains this process in detail in the video that follows:
Video: “Refugee Book Talk with Author Alan Gratz.” Alan Gratz, Youtube, 1 March 2018.
https://youtu.be/tszVbvGdhik?t=617
How would it fit into the syllabus?
In my opinion, this novel also perfectly fits alongside The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, a wordless picture book which illustrates the life of a migrant as he arrives in his new country, focusing mostly on his discovery of the new life and his integration. Indeed, not only would the two stories complete each other – one centering on the difficult journey to their destination, the other on the arrival in the new country – but their storytelling techniques are also very interestingly opposites. Shaun Tan’s story invites a slow read, while Alan Gratz’s book is very fast-paced and quick to read. However, both are symbols for wider experiences. The Arrival offers individual interpretations of the story and can be read as a sort of blueprint for many immigrants' experiences. And though Refugee concentrates on only three main characters, their stories are made of several others and thus represent countless further paths and events experienced by many refugees. Both books also tackle the feelings of the unknown and the undefined in the lives of the migrants, which are prevalent themes in the stories, as there is constant looming danger and incertitude about what the future holds.
Sources
Gratz, Alan. Refugee. Scholastic Canada, 2017.
Gratz, Alan. “Refugee Book Talk with Author Alan Gratz.” Youtube, 1 March 2018. https://youtu.be/tszVbvGdhik?t=617 (Accessed 25 march 2022)
Jordan, Tina. “That huge surprise in his family genealogy? It’s playing out in his novels.” The New York Times, 12 August 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/books/review/refugee-alan-gratz-best-seller.html (Accessed 27 march 2022)
McConchie, James. “Why Children Need to Hear Refugee Stories.” Greater Good Magazine, 14 January 2020. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_children_need_to_hear_refugee_stories (Accessed 27 march 2022)