Stormy seas Stories of young boat refugees

*Starred Review* Leatherdale and Shakespeare's slim, gut-punch of a volume opens with a staggering statistic: Sixty million of the world's seven billion people . . . have been forced to leave their homes because of war, persecution, or natural disasters. Five of those 60 million are profiled here, with snippets of interviews, key historical context, and photos of each teenage subject included on eye-catching collage spreads. Jewish Ruth boards an ocean liner to escape the Nazis in Germany, but the ship is repeatedly turned away. Phu leaves his family behind and flees Vietnam on a crowded boat, which was repeatedly attacked by pirates. José leaves with his family from Cuba, bound for the United States and nothing is going to stop them. Najeeba and her family flee the Taliban in Afghanistan, while Mohamed endures four horrendous years of being moved around by human traffickers before finally attaining freedom and stability in Italy. The facts and statistics Leatherdale includes are undoubtedly shocking, but it's the refugees' personal stories and voices that make these accounts especially meaningful, particularly since each of the five ultimately survived their harrowing journeys. Shakespeare's dynamic, magazine-style spreads contain maps, headlines, photos, and evocative images rendered in torn paper and thick ink scrawls. Together, the words and images offer an affecting perspective on the plight of refugees and emphasizes that this human-rights crisis is an ongoing, urgent issue.--Lock, Anita Copyright 2017 Booklist

This composite portrait of the struggles of 20th- and 21st-century boat refugees is alternately harrowing, wrenching, and hopeful. Leatherdale (coauthor of Urban Tribes and Dreaming in Indian) provides compact profiles of five adolescents who, between 1939 and 2006, left their homelands to escape violence and repressive regimes. In 1939, 18-year-old Ruth was among more than 900 German Jews aboard the SS St. Louis who were turned away from Cuba (and several other North and South American nations, including the U.S.); decades later, 13-year-old José and his family fled Cuba in what became known as the Mariel boatlift. Sidebars provide historical context, and the asylum-seekers' first-person accounts bring immediacy and urgency to their stories (four of the former refugees are still alive, and shared their stories with the author). Displacement, desperation, isolation, and persecution are common to all five stories, and although closing passages offer somewhat heartening updates on what happened to each individual, Leatherdale never sugarcoats the human cost of these tragedies. Shakespeare's (Cut, Paste, Create) photo collages underscore the peril and perseverance of the journeys, which serve as powerful mirrors to current humanitarian crises. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

If you're reading this, you--like me--have probably won the lottery. Not the giant cheque, instant millionaire kind of lottery. The other lottery win--the really valuable one. That random, lucky break that means you were born in or immigrated to a relatively peaceful and prosperous place in the world. Along with all the other amazing things about you, that makes you pretty extraordinary.Sixty million of the world's seven billion people aren't so lucky. They have been forced to leave their homes because of war, persecution, or natural disasters. A staggering 19 million of these displaced people have no hope of ever returning home safely and are seeking asylum in another country. And, more than half of these refugees are children and teenagers. Even more upsetting is that many are orphans or "unaccompanied minors" traveling alone, sent by their family in the hope of finding a safe place to live and get an education.News reports in 2015 and 2016 have been full of stories of Syrian refugees who are risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The civil war that has been raging there for years has forced more than half of the country's population out of their homes. That's more than 11 million people in need of shelter, food, water, and medical care. And thousands of others are escaping wars, persecution, and drought in the Middle East and North and sub-Sahara Africa, also trying to find safe refuge in Europe.The influx of refugees has caused divisions across the European Union. Countless individuals and organizations have rallied to provide support to the refugees, and countries such as Germany, Hungary, and Sweden have welcomed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. Yet, many peaceful and prosperous countries in Europe and North America are hostile to refugees and migrants. Anti-refugee and anti-immigrant policies are rising around the world, depriving refugees of the right to asylum guaranteed under international law. So in their quest for a safe and secure future, hundreds of thousands of refugees are forced to turn to criminal smuggling rings that have created a six billion dollar industry, overcharging for passage across the Mediterranean on overcrowded, unseaworthy boats.But boat refugees risking their lives at sea isn't a new phenomenon. For hundreds of years, through wars, famines, failing economies, and religious persecution, people have been pushed by circumstances and hope to leave behind all they know and board a ship for a country they've never seen. To help make sense of what I was seeing on the news, I set out to research and interview people who were boat refugees themselves as children. I quickly understood the magnitude of what I was asking and how traumatic it can be for people to tell their stories, particularly Syrian children who have recently crossed the Mediterranean and are still living under precarious circumstances in refugee camps in Europe. The five young boat refugees whose stories appear in Stormy Seas are lucky--not only did they survive the treacherous ocean voyage, they persevered and prospered, even in the face of uncertainty, financial challenges, and discrimination in their new homes. Things got better.At first glance, the refugees we see on the news and the hardships they endure may seem unrelated to us--not our problem. But like Ruth, Phu, José, Najeeba, and Mohamed, the conflicts, discrimination, and environmental challenges that force them to leave their homes aren't their fault or within their power to change alone. Either through action or inaction, we all play a role in the dire circumstances refugees face. Their courage in leaving behind everything they know in search of peace and security, and their resilience in overcoming horrific journeys, restores hope in what life can be--not just for them but for all of us. Excerpted from Stormy Seas: Stories of Young Boat Refugees by Mary Beth Leatherdale All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.