A youngCanLit booklist for World Refugee Day: June 20

People fleeing their home countries to find shelter from both man-created and natural calamities is not new. From Jews fleeing Spain in the 1400s to avoid conversion to Christianity to Syrian refugees displaced because of a war which started in 2011, the plight of refugees is historical and contemporary. Though a day designated for refugees was only designated in 2000, the United Nations created the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in 1950 and its purview continues to expand in scope. I hope this subset of youngCanLit titles will help young readers appreciate the scope of experiences by those displaced by conflict, persecution and natural disaster in seeking new homes across borders.

PICTURE BOOKS

The Banana-Leaf Ball
Written by Katie Smith Milway
Illustrated by Shane W. Evans
Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 8-12
2017
Reviewed here

From Far Away
Written by Robert Munsch
Illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Annick Press
24 pp.
Ages 4-7
1995

From Far Away (new edition)
Written by Robert Munsch and Saoussan Askar
Illustrated by Rebecca Green
Annick Press
32 pp.
Ages 4-7
2017

Mustafa
Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books
40 pp.
Ages 4-8
2018

My Beautiful Birds
Written and illustrated by Suzanne Del Rizzo
Pajama Press
32 pp.
Ages 6-10
2017
Reviewed here

Out of the Blue
Written and illustrated by Wallace Edwards
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
2018
Reviewed here

The Roses in My Carpets
Written by Rukhsana Khan
Illustrated by Ronald Himler
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 5-8
2004

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey
Written by Margriet Ruurs
Artwork by Nizar Ali Badr
Orca Book Publishers
28 pp.
All ages
2016
Reviewed here

Story Boat
Written by Kyo Maclear
Illustrated by Rashin Kheiriyeh
Tundra
40 pp.
Ages 3-7
2020
Reviewed here

The Walking Stick
Written by Maxine Trottier
Illustrated by Annouchka Gravel Galouchko
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
22 pp.
Ages 6-9
1998





NOVELS AND SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS

Blue Gold
Written by Elizabeth Stewart
Annick Press
304 pp.
Ages 13+
2014

A Cage Without Bars
Written by Anne Dublin
Second Story Press
160 pp.
Ages 10-14
2018
Reviewed here

Dance of the Banished
Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Pajama Press
288 pp.
Ages 12+
2014
Reviewed here

The Garden
Written by Meghan Ferrari
Red Deer Press
109 pp.
Ages 12+
2018
Reviewed here

A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk
Written by Jan L. Cotes
Red Deer Press
274 pp.
Ages 12+
2010

Manuelito: A graphic novel
Written by Elisa Amado
Illustrated by Abraham Urias
Annick Press
91 pp.
Ages 13-17
2019

Masters of Silence
Written by Kathy Kacer
Annick Press
265 pp.
Ages 9-12
2019

Mud City
Written by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
168 pp.
Ages 8-14
2003

Pieces of the Past : The Holocaust Diary of Rose Rabinowitz, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1948 (Dear Canada)
Written by Carol Matas
Scholastic Canada
168 pp.
Ages 9-12
2013

Refuge Cove
Written by Lesley Choyce
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 12+
2002

Room for One More
by Monique Polak
Kar-Ben
232 pp.
Ages 12+
October 2019

Seeking Refuge
Written by Irene Watts
Illustrated by Kathryn Shoemaker
Tradewind Books
136 pp.
Ages 8-14
2016

Shanghai Escape
Written by Kathy Kacer
Second Story Press
240 pp.
Ages 9-12
2013

Walking Home
Written by Eric Walters
Doubleday Canada
304 pp.
Ages 9-13
2014

The Whirlwind
Written by Carol Matas
Orca Book Publishers
244 pp.
Ages 12+
2007







NON-FICTION

Children of War: Voices of Iraqi refugees
Written by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood
128 pp.
Ages 8-14
2009

Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy’s Story of Survival
Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch with Tuan Ho
Illustrated by Brian Deines
Pajama Press
40 pp.
Ages 6+
2016
Reviewed here

The Bite of the Mango
Written by Mariatu Kamara and Susan McLelland
Annick Press
216 pp.
Ages 13+
2008

A Cave in the Clouds: A Young Woman's Escape from ISIS
Written by Badeeah Hassan Ahmed with Susan Elizabeth McClelland
Annick Press
232 pp.
Ages 16+
2019

Rescuing the Children: The Story of the Kindertransport
Written by Deborah Hodge
Tundra
64 pp.
Ages 8-4
2012

The Ship to Nowhere: On Board the Exodus
Written by Rona Arato
Second Story Press
176 pp.
Ages 9-14
2016

Stay Silent: A Refugee's Escape from Colombia
Written by Natalie Hyde
Clockwise Press
144 pp.
Ages 10-15
2016

Stormy Seas: Stories of Young Boat Refugees
Written by Mary Beth Leatherdale
Illustrated by Eleanor Shakespeare
Annick Press
64 pp.
Ages 10-14
2017

To Hope and Back: The Journey of the St. Louis
Written by Kathy Kacer
Second Story Press
204 pp.
Ages 11-14
2011

Too Young to Escape: A Vietnamese Girl Waits to be Reunited with her Family
Written by Van Ho with Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Pajama Press
152 pp.
Ages 8-12
2018
Reviewed here

What is a Refugee?
Written and illustrated by Elise Gravel
Schartz & Wade
32 pp.
Ages 8-10
September 2019

Where Will I Live?
Written by Rosemary McCarney
Second Story Press
24 pp.
Ages 5-9
2017
Reviewed here

The Marrow Thieves

Written by Cherie Dimaline

Dancing Cat Books/Cormorant

978-1-77086-486-3

231 pp.

Ages 14+

2017

Poisoning your own drinking water, changing the air so much the earth shook and melted and crumbled, harvesting a race for medicine. (pg. 47)

This is the world in which Frenchie is trying to survive.  After his father had gone with the Council to the Southern Metropolitan City, hopeful of enacting some change, and their mom passed, it was just Frenchie and his older brother Mitch evading the Recruiters, truancy officers seeking Indigenous people to place in their new version of residential schools.  Seems that, though all were highly impacted by the stresses of water shortages, climatic shifts and conflict, non-Indigenous people lost the ability to dream and sought out Indigenous Peoples for their bone marrow as a source for that ability.  What actually happened in the schools, though, was the stuff of rumours and nightmares.

When Mitch sacrifices himself to the Recruiters to save Frenchie, the teen heads north and joins a  group headed by a man named Miigwans and the Elder Minerva, along with teens Chi-Boy and Wab, twelve-year-old twins Tree and Zheegwon, and a young boy Slopper and seven-year-old RiRi.  Along with a new arrival, Rose, the mixed group of Cree, Métis and more, from the east coast and the west lands and everywhere in between, work to stay safe, learn "old-timey" skills like hunting and homesteading but also language which has been lost.  Each comes with their own creation story, framing their lives with the scars of their histories and the jewels of their heritage.  How they will outrun their pasts and those who seek to harm them while making some future in a world gone terribly wrong can only be told by those telling the story and dreaming.

While the environmental degradation alone could result in the dystopia of The Marrow Thieves, it is but a fraction of the agony of the world Cherie Dimaline has created.  It is a world that has gone beyond decline and into catastrophic collapse.  The heinous racism against Aboriginal Peoples coupled with the carnage perpetrated against them is terrifying but not unfamiliar.  By telling this story in a dystopian world set decades into the future, Cherie Dimaline tells much more about the past.  Still, within that horror, there is a wisdom of self and others, a pocket of compassion and understanding that might be the only hope.

"...running only works of you're moving towards something, not away. Otherwise, you'll never get anywhere." (pg. 217)

Moreover, Cherie Dimaline tells it with such depth of feeling and imagery that The Marrow Thieves becomes a lyrical epic.

Out here stars were perforations revealing the bleached skeleton of the universe through a collection of tiny holes. And surrounded by these silent trees, beside a calming fire, I watched the bones dance.  This was our medicine, these bones, and I opened up and took it all in. And dreamed of north. (pg. 9)

The accolades for The Marrow Thieves have been robust and far-reaching.  They include winning the 2017 Governor General for Young People's Literature and the 2017 Kirkus Prize; a nomination for the Forest of Reading's White Pine Award; selection as The Globe and Mail Best Book; and most recently selection for CBC's 2018 Canada Reads battle of the books. The Marrow Thieves deserves each honour and more as does its creator Cherie Dimaline for weaving a cautionary story of sorrow and history with a future that still has a sliver of reverie.

Elijah of Buxton

Written by Christopher Paul Curtis

Scholastic Press

9780439936477 

288 pp.

Ages 9-12

2007

Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman is the first free child born in Buxton, Ontario, a town of slaves who have escaped from the United States.  His days are filled with fishing by throwing stones, going to school, staying away from snakes (of which he is deathly afraid) and continuing to run into the Preacher, a sweet-talking but manipulative man, who gets Elijah involved in more than one of his schemes. But when the Preacher steals all the hard-earned money that Mr. Leroy was saving to buy his wife and two children out of slavery, Elijah, a boy of innocence and a strong sense of fairness, finds himself heading across the border and into the world of slavers and those seeking freedom in Canada. His ma might call him "fra-gile" but Elijah proves that he is anything but.

Though Elijah of Buxton is a book of a harrowing journey into America by a black youth looking to right a wrong, it only becomes a perilous adventure in the last third of the book.  Christopher Paul Curtis takes time to set the stage for that venture, establishing his characters and cultural landscape through the complexity of voice and atmosphere.  Elijah's interactions with others in his community, both peers and those "growned-up," speak to the changing times, when racism could be overt or concealed and the divide between the United States and Canada was both conspicuous and subtle.

Elijah of Buxton begs to be read aloud to get the full nuance of language and tone that Christopher Paul Curtis instills in the narration and dialogue, just as he has in The Madman of Piney Woods and The Journey of Little Charlie.  The dialect can seem confusing at times but read aloud the text becomes rich and flavourful.

There are many difficult moments in Elijah of Buxton, times when my heart broke and I struggled to read on.  Not because the book wasn't an outstanding piece of literature but because of the injustices and horrors endured.   Mind you, even Christopher Paul Curtis's ending left me sobbing and still hopeful for a baby, for Elijah and for all. Christopher Paul Curtis had just set up the “most beautifullest, most perfectest” story he could.

••••••••••••••••••

Though I rarely review books not published in the past year, my recent review of The Journey of Little Charlie compelled me to review Christopher Paul Curtis's earlier books that reference the town of Buxton, The Madman of Piney Woods and now Elijah of Buxton.  These books are not a series, though Buxton is mentioned in each.  Please read them all.

My Beautiful Birds

Written and illustrated by Suzanne Del Rizzo

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-012-3

32 pp.

Ages 6-10

March 2017

In My Beautiful Birds, author-illustrator Suzanne Del Rizzo offers a poignant story of a Syrian child refugee traumatized by leaving his cherished pigeons behind.  It is a tale of sorrow and suffering and promise, and beautifully rendered in Suzanne Del Rizzo’s distinctive art.

From My Beautiful Birds 

by Suzanne Del Rizzo

Sami is a little boy who delights in caring for his pet pigeons.  When the family must escape their war-torn home and trek endless days to the Za'atari refugee camp, Sami worries for his birds’ safety, though he filled their bowls with food and saw them escape into the skies above. As life unfolds tenuously at the camp, first with shelter and then with the restoration of household routines and school, Sami worries and longs for his birds.

I wish it were like it used to be, just me and my pigeons up on our rooftop with the wind and the boundless sky.   Happy.  Free. (pg. 13)

Even a painting activity that starts out well enough, with Sami painting his “beautiful birds, knowing each wispy feather by heart” (pg. 15)

From My Beautiful Birds

by Suzanne Del Rizzo

becomes a disaster of blackened paint, not unlike the darkness in the sky and worries in the little boy’s heart.

Now, when the smoky nightmares boom, I watch the clouds. Sometimes, fluffy cloud-pigeons take shape.
Spiraling.
Soaring.
Sharing the sky. (pg. 19)

From My Beautiful Birds

by Suzanne Del Rizzo

Everything changes when four birds–a canary, a dove, a rose finch and a pigeon–reach out to Sami, painting “the sky with promise, and the hope of peace.” (pg. 22) The boy in the blue hoodie and yellow boots reaches right back, and finds a way to look to a tomorrow where he can help others.

The sadness and trauma in this little boy’s life is so palpable, from the family’s departure to their adjustment to the refugee camp and to the despondency that permeates Sami’s new life.  Through use of colour and the texture of her art–here polymer clay with acrylics–Suzanne Del Rizzo balances the shadows of war and trauma with the bright colours of youthful exuberance and pastels of hope for a future.  There’s the tumultuous skies and the ordinary days, and the anger of loss with the chirpiness of birds and children at play.  I know the excellence of her art, complex in the depth of detail and its ability to evoke emotions.  But Suzanne Del Rizzo has demonstrated a new depth to her writing.  Perhaps it’s the tragic circumstances of the story but Suzanne Del Rizzo has put heart and hope into her words, giving breath to a staggering situation, suffusing it with some degree of optimism where there is so little.  My Beautiful Birds provides a promise that all the the darkness from that Syrian skyline of smoke is behind Sami and remains open to a bright sky of birds and lightness, the landscape of his future.

From My Beautiful Birds 

by Suzanne Del Rizzo

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey

by Margriet Ruurs

Artwork by Nizar Ali Badr

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-459814905

28 pp.

All ages

October 2016

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey is a very important book on so many fronts.  At face value, it recounts in memorable artwork and text the plight of refugees from Syria, Nizar Ali Badr’s home, or elsewhere, now and forever.  But beyond bringing understanding to the refugee crisis, Stepping Stones is a book of encouragement to those arriving in Canada –the book is a dual-language edition in both English and Arabic–and to those who can contribute to the cause.

This is the story told from the perspective of a young girl, Rama, who recounts life in Syria, from the rooster crowing her family (Mama, Papa, grandfather Jedo and brother Sami) awake, and a breakfast of bread, yogurt and tomatoes, and memories of play and work, school and freedom.

But that was then.And this is now. (pg. 10)

From Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey 

by Margriet Ruurs, art by Nizar Ali Badr

But their freedom is an illusion, and after war comes, there is insufficient food and the bombings, and people begin to leave.

People began to leave our village.
First a trickle, then a stream,
across dusty fields under a burning sun,
a stream driven by hope. (pg. 14)

So too begins Rama’s family exodus, walking until reaching the sea, whereupon they “set sail on the waves of hope and prayer” (pg. 20), arriving on land where the gruelling trek begins again, until they arrive at their future, welcomed by neighbours who communicate with smiles and the sharing of clothes and food and more.

The lucky ones, they call us.
New memories, new hopes,
     new dreams.
Not of war,
but of peace. (pg. 25)

All told in the artistry of Nizar Ali Badr’s stunning arrangements of oddly-shaped and widely-coloured stones, Stepping Stones could be the story of any refugee family: a good life bombarded by war, a demanding and emotional flight from danger, and the arrival to a new life.  Though for each family the path is a unique arrangement of steps, its bearing is always the same: safety and opportunity.  Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey reveals this route with empathy and assurance.

Margriet Ruurs provides an extensive foreward that explains the background of Stepping Stones coming to publication.  She accounts her herculean efforts to contact artist Nizar Ali Badr after viewing his wondrous artwork of stones, about convincing him and Orca Book Publishers to take on the project, and arranging for a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the books to be donated to resettlement agencies.  The task may have been as arduous as that of Sisyphus but the ultimate story of Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey, both within and externally, culminates with promise and purpose, the hallmarks of a good life.

From Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey 

by Margriet Ruurs, art by Nizar Ali Badr