{"id":33571,"date":"2017-09-06T22:37:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-07T02:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=33571"},"modified":"2017-09-06T22:37:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-07T02:37:03","slug":"review-of-stormy-seas-by-mary-beth-leatherdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=33571","title":{"rendered":"Review of Stormy Seas, by Mary Beth Leatherdale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Stormy Seas<\/p>\n

Stories of Young Boat Refugees<\/em><\/p>\n

by Mary Beth Leatherdale
\nillustrated and designed by Eleanor Shakespeare<\/p>\n

Annick Press, 2017. 64 pages.<\/p>\n

Stormy Seas<\/em> is in large picture book format \u2013 but the large amount of text on each page presents information for upper elementary age children. There are striking illustrations on each page, usually incorporating photographs \u2013 getting the information across with charts and maps as well as text.<\/p>\n

This book tells the individual true stories of five young people who were refugees and traveled by boat: Ruth, 18 years old in 1939, leaving Germany; Phu, 14 years old in 1979, leaving Vietnam; Jos\u00e9 , 13 years old in 1980, leaving Cuba; Najeeba, 11 years old in 2000, leaving Afghanistan; and Mohamed, 13 years old in 2006, leaving Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n

For each young person, the book describes their journey, explaining why they were desperate enough to leave, the frightful conditions of their boat journey, and each story ends up with what happened to them after their journey. All of the journeys were much longer than I ever would have realized \u2013 the narrative includes the time they had to spend to get on the boat in the first place. <\/p>\n

Most of the journeys didn\u2019t have a happy result when they landed, either. Ruth\u2019s ship of German Jewish refugees got turned away from Cuba and had to sail back to Europe. Phu and his family got put in a refugee camp. Jos\u00e9 and his family were shocked by the neighborhood in New York City with its poverty and drugs. Najeeba was held in a detention center in Australia for 45 days. Mohamed ended up homeless in a train station in Rome for awhile.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing like stories and faces to give you empathy. This book does provide numbers of refugees and gives statistics. But the individual stories put faces to those numbers in a way that will stick with the reader.<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/stormy_seas.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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