Refugee 87
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A young refugee crosses continents in this timely, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel of survival.
Shif has a happy life, unfamiliar with the horrors of his country's regime. He is one of the smartest boys in school, and feels safe and loved in the home he shares with his mother and little sister, right next door to his best friend. But the day that soldiers arrive at his door, Shif knows that he will never be safe again -- his only choice is to run. Facing both unthinkable cruelty and boundless kindness, Shif bravely makes his way towards a future he can barely imagine.
Based on real experiences and written in spare, powerful prose, this gripping debut illustrates the realities faced by countless young refugees across the world today. Refugee 87 is a story of friendship, kindness, hardship, survival, and -- above all -- hope.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shif, 14, has lived in poverty with his mother and little sister, and under the constant threat of political danger, since losing his father more than seven years earlier. Narrated in Shif's unadorned, present-tense voice and set in a nameless country under military control, Fountain's debut depicts the boy's strong friendship and good-natured rivalry with neighbor Bini, with whom he shares a passion for studying and ambitions for a professional future. After the two are unexpectedly taken by soldiers and imprisoned in the desert with a group of older men, all unjustly captured by the military government, the prisoners choose the boys to escape and spread word of their detention and conditions. They do escape, but only Shif makes it across the border and into a precarious existence as a refugee. Opening with the dramatic closing scene, the book builds up to that climactic moment, eventually relieving the growing tension over Shif's fate. The story's grim aspects (relentless hunger and thirst, extreme temperature shifts, the guards' brutality) may overwhelm more sensitive readers, but Shif's blunt and sympathetic voice turns today's headlines into one compassionate and resilient boy's experience. Ages 8 12.
