This book is a NYT bestseller and there is a reason for that. Readers follow the stories of three refugee teens. Josef is a Jewish boy whose family boards a ship bound for the other side of the world to avoid being sent to a concentration camp. His story chronicles that journey. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994 whose family escapes the violence and unrest on a raft—hoping to make it to America and to safety. Mahmud is a Syrian boy whose family is trekking to Europe in 2015. While none of the three main characters are real, every single thing that happened to them happened to a refugee at some point in time. The idea for the book originated with the fact that no book has been written for young readers about the journey of the oceanliner MS St. Louis. As Gratz was figuring out the characters for this story, his family vacation took him to Key West. A morning walk led to the discovery of an abandoned raft. He decided to tell a more modern story of escape from tyranny. At the same time, he was seeing the plight of the Syrian refugees and realized he had a problem—which book should he write? The answer: write one book and combine all three stories. The book, the characters, the settings, the plot—full of struggle, facing impossibilities, courage, and heartbreak. It is not only compelling, it is necessary.
Gratz has been putting fictional kids in danger since 2006 with his historical and contemporary books. Students can explore historical events such as D-Day, the American landing on Okinawa, the Holocaust, and the current refugee experience through the perspective of kids their age. Students reading books by Gratz might connect with him because he enjoys playing games, eating pizza, watching baseball (lists his favorite national and international teams on the website). Obviously, he likes to write books since he has written quite a few. Before he went full-time as a writer he taught 8th grade English and will go back to that if he decides to quit writing. He wishes he had read more books when he was a kid.
Teaching Points: Refugee literature, Holocaust literature, Immigrant literature.
If your students wonder how authors come up with ideas, they might want to check out the FAQ section of his website where he has tells where the ideas for several of his books and their characters originated.
Pathways Themes: Social Issues & Culture, Personal Feelings & Growth
Reviewed by Krystal Bishop, EdD
Professor of Education
Southern Adventist University
