Middle Grade Monday: Nowhere Boy (audio book)

 

Title: Nowhere Boy
Author: Katherine Marsh
Publication Info: 2018, Listening Library. Hardback published 2018, Roaring Brook Press, 368 pages.
Source: Library digital resources

Publisher's Blurb:

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed is stuck in a city that wants nothing to do with him. Newly arrived in Brussels, Belgium, Ahmed fled a life of uncertainty and suffering in Aleppo, Syria, only to lose his father on the perilous journey to the shores of Europe. Now Ahmed’s struggling to get by on his own, but with no one left to trust and nowhere to go, he’s starting to lose hope.

Then he meets Max, a thirteen-year-old American boy from Washington, D.C. Lonely and homesick, Max is struggling at his new school and just can’t seem to do anything right. But with one startling discovery, Max and Ahmed’s lives collide and a friendship begins to grow. Together, Max and Ahmed will defy the odds, learning from each other what it means to be brave and how hope can change your destiny.

Set against the backdrop of the Syrian refugee crisis, award-winning author of Jepp, Who Defied the Stars Katherine Marsh delivers a gripping, heartwarming story of resilience, friendship and everyday heroes. Barbara O'Connor, author of Wish and Wonderland, says "Move Nowhere Boy to the top of your to-be-read pile immediately." 

My Review:  

Another of my impulse-borrows, I stuck this on my phone and started listening without a lot of thought. I was intrigued by the premise: the unhappy American boy and the refugee, both lost and out of place, and wondered how the author was going to pull it off. Soon, I couldn't stop listening.

At the start, Max's story reads like so many middle-grade misfit stories. He's unhappy about the move to Brussels (for which I kinda wanted to dope-slap him, because--living abroad!), and no one understands him. Literally, since he's attending a regular public school despite knowing no French. It feels almost trivial.

The contrast with Ahmed's story is so stark as to make me wonder, at first, if this could work. The cover illustration captures that perfectly: one boy living in sunshine and color and whining about it, and the other living in a grey world and trying not to despair. What impressed me was the way the author gradually brings those worlds together, never losing sight of the fact that Ahmed's world is not, and cannot be, like Max's, but allowing them to at least share some overlap. Some aspects of the way the story works out felt a little unreal and forced, but I appreciated that there was a lot of hope offered in the end, and Marsh manages to make it believable.

The audio narration was not bad, but I was bothered by the use of a French accent to depict passages where people were meant to be speaking in French. It felt wrong, because of course they were NOT speaking with an accent; they were speaking their native language. For some reason that bugged me. On the other hand, the frequent insertion of bits of French into the dialog were kind of fun, and hearing those aloud brought back my own French studies.

My Recommendation:
This is a thought-provoking story about friendship as well as about the treatment of Syrian refugees--and maybe other migrants seeking safety and a better life in other parts of the world? The book is well worth reading, however you do it. Suitable for children 9 and up. There are some distressing bits relating to war and terrorism, as well as the deaths of family members.


FTC Disclosure: I checked Nowhere Boy out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

Middle Grade Monday: Refugee

 

Title: Refugee
Author: Alan Gratz
Publication Info: Scholastic, 2017. 352 pages, Kindle version
Source: Library digital resources

Publisher's Blurb:

Three different kids.

One mission in common: ESCAPE.

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe…

All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers–from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But for each of them, there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, surprising connections will tie their stories together in the end.  


My Review:  

I read this because it was the July (!) selection for our Goodreads "Great Middle Grade Reads" group. While I think it is a valuable and important book (though maybe more important for the grown-ups to read than the kids!), I can't say I liked it a lot, or thought it was the best I've read. Maybe more accurate would be to say that I had some issues with the book, but think it was powerful.

One thing I found was that the structure--short chapters cycling among the three main characters--kept me reading. Almost every chapter ended with a cliff-hanger, and I had to read about the other two characters before I could get back to the first, and so on. That was undeniably effective story-telling. The chapters were short, however, and that made it harder to connect with the characters. Maybe I didn't want to, knowing what they might suffer (and I had a niggling memory about Josef's situation, and was correct).

I also had some reservations about the ways in which the stories connected, which felt a bit contrived. One sadly real thread that connected them was the efforts of too many nations (including, yes, the US) to reject refugees, even at the cost of their lives.

In essence, then, I found the powerful storytelling to be a bit diluted by structural choices, which still leaves this both a pretty good read and an excellent wake-up call.

My Recommendation:
At the risk of getting political, I think that those who are ruling our country right now might benefit from an empathetic reading of this book. More realistically, I would recommend it for anyone over about age 12, maybe older. I think this one teeters on the brink of YA, not juvvy, thanks especially to the descriptions of what happened in the concentrations camps of WWII.

FTC Disclosure: I checked Refugee out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review. The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."