  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 08/01/2018 A young girl’s day begins in the comfort of home and family and continues happily at school, until “just after lunch,” when war comes. Her world is completely destroyed with “smoke and fire and noise that I didn’t understand,” the impact of which is felt by readers when the sunny and smiley pencil-and-watercolor art turns suddenly gray and smothering. Wandering away from her devastated town on trucks and boats and foot, the girl finds all doors closed to her, including a school’s. She continues on alone until another child finds her cowering in a hut and brings a chair so that she and others will have a place to sit in a pretty, functional school. This first-person poem’s words are moving, and the pictures absolutely political, depicting fair-skinned adults turning away the girl with a darker complexion before kindness is extended to her by her diverse new classmates. Published in partnership with Help Refugees, a British humanitarian-aid organization, this is a strong statement on the impact of refugee crises upon children. - Copyright 2018 Booklist. Loading...
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