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Refugee, created by Alan Gratz, follows 3 refugees from specific timeframes who are trying to leave from warfare and oppression. Isabel, a Cuban girl in 1994 who herself and her family are seeking safety from political rebellion as they flee to United States; Josef, a Jewish boy in the 1930's embarks on a journey to escape Nazi Germany, also known as the Holocaust; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 who struggles to outlive the Syrian War and

“Whether you were visible or invisible, it was all about how other people reacted to you.“

This book is past on true events that happened in three different time periods with three fictional characters. All three characters are 13 years old and all the stories are told from their perspectives. These would be important times in history to tell students about. Some of the descriptions may be graphic for younger students but can be summarized to meet each grade.

This book is a good book for advanced readers or older children. This book would be too intense of a reading level for younger readers. This book has a unique perspective on true stories based on fictional characters.

“Head down, hoodie up, eyes on the ground. Be unimportant. Blend in. Disappear. That was how you avoided the bullies.”

This book would be good to read to upper elementary grades and help them understand the importance of sticking up for people who may be being bullied or excluded. Although this book shows more extreme versions of this, it allows students to have different perspectives of children who faced hardships.

Refugee by Alan Gratz published in 2017 is a book following three different children and their families during different historical periods. It is an intense book that allows children to see into other children's lives from far and recent history and make connections or comparisons to their own lives. The story is told from the perspective of each of these three children which allows the readers to feel more connected to them.

“If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here.”

This story would be good for older elementary or middle school students. The children in the stories are 11 and 12 so children will be able to relate their wants and interests but see how their environment makes their lives very different from what the students in the classroom look like. I think this story would be something we read as a class and would have a lot of talking points about different historical events.

Refugee is a historical fiction book published in 2017 that follows the stories of three children and what themselves and their families endure during three prominent times in history. The three eras are Nazi Germany, Cuba in 1990, and modern day Syria and what it looks like trying to reach safety. The details in this book give you true insights on what life is like for these children and the cruel truth about what they go through.