City News

Refugee is a young adult literature novel by Alan Gratz. In this book, we follow three main characters and their journeys of escaping their corrupt countries ruled by dictators and war. The three real life events in this story focuses on Hitler and Germany, Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Bashar al-Assad in Syria. All of these events happened in real life, and this story is about three refugees, one from each country, who are trying to flee their country.

Our first main protagonist is Josef Landau, a young Jewish boy who is always trying to prove that he is becoming an adult. One night, men break into his house and take his father to a concentration camp. After a few months, Josef’s mother, sister, and father recconnect and they plan to board the St. Louis in order to escape the Nazis. Unfortunately, the concentration camp seems to have affected Josef’s father detrimentally. As Josef has his Bar Mitzvah on the ship, he realizes that becoming an adult is more than just acting mature.

The second main character is Isabel Fernandez, a girl who is trying to escape Cuba with her family and her friend’s family. Unfortunately, the long sea journey on a makeshift raft isn’t so smooth. However, it’s interesting to see each of the characters' dialogue since there are so many of them. Isabel is always trying to count clave, which is a special rhythm that she believes signifies you’ve found peace and home.

The third figure is Mahmoud, who is a teenager trying to figure out if he should be visible or invisible. This is because if you are visible, good people can help you but bad people can hurt you. If you are invisible, neither good nor bad people can help or hurt you.He is currently trying to escape Syria, which is an ongoing war right now. Him and his family’s apartment get blown up by a missile, and they are fleeing wherever they can for safety.

The great thing about this book is you get three stories all in one. The pattern is a chapter about Josef, then Isabel, then Mahmoud, and back to Josef. Not only that, but the author comes up with a brilliant way to connect all of these stories near the end even though they take place in different places and times. Each character has depth, and the development that happens throughout the book is just phenomenal. It’s also thrilling to not know what may happen next as these characters are constantly on the run. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but since it’s split into three it is much easier to follow.

This book is one of my favorites. It’s a story packed full of suspense, drama, emotion, and also gave me a view of what it was like during these real life events. I would strongly recommend this book to any young adult. It has such a great story to the point where I couldn’t put the book down.

Check out Refugee from the Newport Beach Public Library!