By Jane Mitchell
Thirteen-year-old Ghalib wishes his life could go back to normal. He wishes he could still hang out at the market with his friends, root for his favorite soccer team, even go to school. But civil war has destroyed his home.
As violence rages around them, his family makes the difficult choice to flee Syria. Together they start out on a dangerous journey toward Europe. Along the way, they encounter closely guarded borders, hardscrabble refugee camps, and an ocean crossing that they may not survive.
The gripping story of one boy's journey to find refuge pays tribute to struggles millions of Syrians face in today's real-world crisis.
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I really enjoyed this book and felt that it had the right amount of action to keep me interested. I felt sympathetic to the characters and the book helped me to understand the challenges that kids and families face in Syria. I especially enjoyed all of the loving relationships between the family members, the moments of light humor, and the way the book ended.
I had high hopes for this one and it let me down. It started off fine; it was actually near perfect in like the first two pages. But then it got incredibly boring and a character was very cliche. When I first saw Without Refuge, I respected it. A book about a Syrian refugee who is stuck in a devastating war and escapes? Yes please, we need diverse books. But then it went in a slow pace with a character that really irritated me. For example- Ghalib (the main character) burned both his feet when a bomb was sent out by terrorists. His father cared for him while he was recovering. His older sister, Bushra, apparently hates him for some reason. “‘Bushra, we need fresh water,’Dapir says. ‘The container is empty.’ ‘Why is it always ‘Bushra, we need this’? ‘Bushra, we need that’?’ my sister says. ‘Am I the only one in this house?’ She snatches up the container and gives me one of her looks.” -Without Refuge, pg. #36 Now just add an ‘O-my god’ and this would be complete. See, that really annoyed me. I feel like the author just wanted to add a sister-brother rivalry just so the book would appeal to all sorts of different people. If I wanted to read something like that, trust me, I would find a cliché book. Or maybe five. Please, I don’t prefer books that feature characters like that. *** Another aspect that made me give it a two-star rating is the pacing. It was annoying-ly slow and boring at some parts. I am disappointed. Love the idea, but the execution was lacking. This book had a really bright future, but... well. I received a finished copy of Without Refuge from DogoBooks, this has not influenced my opinion.
its nice
