Books I Wish I Had as a Kid - Episode 2

I am so excited to share this episode of Books I Wish I Had as a Kid. If you missed Episode one, be sure to check it out and go read that book, too!

This series is special because reading was so important to me as a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, and it's important to me now. I use reading as a way to have fun and take a peek into another person's life. I love historical fiction, fantasy, escapist fiction, anything that tells an interesting story about someone, somewhere, living a different life than mine.

Today's featured book offers an intimate and thoughtful window into the world of three children who experience desperate situations beyond what most of us reading this will (hopefully) ever experience. And yet that's why it's so important we read about them, so we can expand our hearts and minds beyond our own little worlds, all which have their own fair (or maybe not-so-fair) share of pain, heartache, and grief and feel connected to a world outside our own.

And the book is...(drum roll please...)

Refugee, by Alan Gratz!

The three main characters live in three different time periods, in three different parts of the world, but they all leave their homes in a desperate attempt to save their lives. This book helps give middle-grade readers (and yeah, middle-aged readers) a chance to hear a different narrative when it comes to the words Refugee. Migrant. Homeless. It humanizes and helps put names and faces to people who would make such a choice and why they would do it.

When we hear politicians dehumanize those in these situations by calling them "aliens" or "illegal", it can make it easy for us to look at them that way, too, as if they're not people at all, but objects. What Alan does through this book and many of his other wonderful books (please go read whatever ones you can get your hands on!) is help us remember that they are not objects, but actual people making decisions that no one should have to make.

Alan's books are meant to be accessible to kids, and he explores topics like the Holocaust and the crisis in Syria in a digestible and appropriate way for children. Nothing gets too graphic, but he still creates tension in a way that helps us imagine what it would like to be there, to be that kid, or to be that parent putting their child in a life raft and sending them off into the ocean in hopes they just might make it to safety.

If you have a middle-grade child in your life, this would be a great book to read with them. I read this and another one of Gratz's books, Prisoner B-3087 when I was a 5th grade teacher's aide at an elementary school. Everyone can take in the tough subjects a little easier when you can share your thoughts in a safe, supportive space.

And speaking of a safe, supportive space, I would love to hear your thoughts on this or any of Alan's books! If you've read this book (or any book) by Alan Gratz, or have questions or just want to join the conversation, sign in!

And if you'd like to purchase your own copy of the book, I recommend buying it through bookshop.org, which supports independent booksellers.