refugees

Village of Scoundrels

Sophie Rosen , , , , ,

Preus, Margi. Village of Scoundrels: Based on a True Story of Courage during WWII. New York: Amulet Books, 2021.

During World War 2, brave villagers in Les Lauzes, France shelter refugees and the people leading them to safety in Switzerland. This quickly-paced novel does not hide the brutality of the Nazi occupiers. Danger is ever present. But there is also humour and joy and hope among the children and young adults setting out to fool the German Gestapo. Includes an epilogue with photographs and biographies of what happened to the real people in the story. Highly recommended for readers 11 to 14 years of age. 

More stories set in France

More stories of refugees

More stories of World War 2

Chance

Sophie Rosen , ,

Shulevitz, Uri. Chance: Escape from the Holocaust. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2020.
Uri Shulevitz is a master storyteller and artist. Anything he writes is worth reading. Anything he draws is worth viewing. In Chance, we discover the story of his childhood from the age of four – when bombs started dropping on Warsaw – to fourteen – when he and his parents emigrated to Israel. In between, they endured internment in a Soviet settlement, poverty in the southern republic of Turkestan, and ostracism in France. Nowhere was safe. Black-and-white illustrations help tell the story of a human spirit surviving in the face of persecution. Despite the large print and wide margins, though, this 329-page book is not recommended for readers in early grades. Some of the details are too heartbreaking. Instead, Chance is highly recommended for readers 11 years old and up. Even adults.

More stories of refugees

More stories of World War 2

Nicky & Vera

Sophie Rosen , , , ,

Sis, Peter. Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021.
Twenty-nine-year-old Nicholas Winton saved almost 700 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938. Ten-year-old Vera was one of those children. Written and illustrated by the inimitable Peter Sis, this true story describes the astonishingly daring rescue during the war and the unexpected reunion fifty years later. Accompanied by an extensive afterward, this picture book is highly recommended for readers eight years old and up.

More stories of WW 2 

More stories of refugees 

More stories set in Europe 

Nowhere Boy

Sophie Rosen , , , ,

Marsh, Katherine. Nowhere Boy. New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2018.

Thirteen-year-old Max is not happy when his family moves from Washington, D.C. to Brussels, Belgium for a year. He is even less pleased when he has to attend a local school with instruction all in French. Worse yet, he has to repeat the sixth grade. But life changes when Max discovers a fourteen-year-old refugee, Ahmed, hiding in the basement. Told from alternating points-of-view, this 362-page suspenseful novel – set in the days following the 2016 Paris bombings – provides a heart-rending yet hopeful picture of life for survivors of war. Highly recommended for readers 11 years old and up. 

Learn the true history behind this fascinating novel!

More stories set in Europe 

More stories of refugees

More stories told from alternating points of view

Dark Hours

Sophie Rosen ,

Pausewang, Gudrun. Dark Hours. Toronto: Annick Press, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old Gisel and her younger siblings flee Russian soldiers during a cold winter in World War 2. Trapped underground after an air raid, Gisel calls on all her courage and ingenuity to enable them to survive. Brilliantly written by an award-winning German author and translated by John Brownjohn, this young adult novel is highly recommended for competent readers 12 years old and up.

More stories of World War 2

More stories of strong female characters

Too Young to Escape

Sophie Rosen , ,

Imagine being left behind when your parents move to another country. That is what happened to young Van. She was left behind when her parents and older siblings fled from the communist rulers in Vietnam. Happily, Van was eventually able to rejoin her family in Canada. 

The large print and widely spaced lines make this 142-page book – illustrated with photographs – easy to read, but the story itself is not so easy to read.  Recommended for brave readers with compassionate hearts.

Ho, Van and Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Too Young to Escape: A Vietnamese Girl Waits to Be Reunited with Her Family. Toronto: Pajama Press, 2018.

More stories about refugees

Cinnamon Moon

Sophie Rosen , , , , ,

Dear Reader,

Ailis and her brother are orphans living in a boarding house in Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871.

If you’ve read Sweep by Jonathan Auxier, you’ll remember how children were snatched by unscrupulous men to work as chimney sweeps.  In this novel, children are also enslaved, this time by devious men who force them to work as rat-catchers in the sewers of Chicago. But twelve-year-old Ailis is fiesty and brave. She is determined to save herself and her brother from a grim future. 

Cinnamon Moon is not a difficult novel to read as far the reading level is concerned.  The narration is written in present tense and from the first person point of view, so the story feels up-to-date in its style. Furthermore, the font is a comfortable size and the lines of print are well-spaced. But the story itself is serious and based on historical facts which are explained at the back of the book. However, rather than being discouraging or depressing, this novel is filled with humour and hope. I think the history will interest you and the ending will inspire you.

Hilmo, Tess. Cinnamon Moon. New York: Margaret Ferguson Books/Farrar, Straus Giroux, 2016. 

P.S. Always watch for books by Tess Hilmo: they’re invariably well-written. 

More historical novels

More novels set in specific American states