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The Day of the Pelican

Katherine Paterson · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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A Long Walk To Water

Linda Sue Park

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathWar ZoneMiddle Grade
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A Long Petal of the Sea

Isabel Allende · 325 pages

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathImmigrationWar Zone
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Exodus

Leon Uris · 626 pages

The lives of many people were involved in the long-dreamed-of birth of the new Israeli nation. A novel of Israel.

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathImmigrationWar Zone
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The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini · 368 pages

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacri

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar and Its AftermathWar Zone
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The Complete Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi · 352 pages

From inside front cover: The story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a ... loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a coutnry plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trails of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming -- both sweet and terrible; and, fina

War and Its AftermathImmigrationWar ZoneRefugee Experience
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Inside Out & Back Again

Thanhha Lai · 274 pages

Inside Out & Back Again is a verse novel by Thanhha Lai. The book was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and one of the two Newbery Honors. The novel was based on her first year in the United States, as a ten-year-old girl who spoke no English in 1975.

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar and Its AftermathMiddle Grade
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Mornings in Jenin

Susan Abulhawa · 352 pages

Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son fathers a family and falls victim to an Israeli bullet, and his grandchildren struggle against tragedy toward freedom, peace, and home. Th

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar and Its AftermathHistorical Fiction
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Nowhere Boy

Katherine Marsh · 366 pages

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar and Its AftermathMiddle Grade
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The Red Umbrella

Christina Diaz Gonzalez · 284 pages

The Red Umbrella is the moving tale of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan--an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution.In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucia Alvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the so

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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Salt Houses

Hala Alyan · 320 pages

"From a dazzling new literary voice, a debut novel about a Palestinian family caught between present and past, between displacement and home ... On the eve of her daughter Alia's wedding, Salma reads the girl's future in a cup of coffee dregs. She sees an unsettled life for Alia and her children; she also sees travel, and luck. While she chooses to keep her predictions to herself that day, they wi

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar and Its AftermathHistorical Fiction
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Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys · 393 pages

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets. Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war. As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom. Yet not all promises can be kept. Inspired by the si

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathWar ZoneTeen Protagonist
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Exit West

Mohsin Hamid · 231 pages

"In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet-- sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors-- doo

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar ZoneWar and Its Aftermath
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A Little Piece of Ground

Elizabeth Laird · 220 pages

During the Israeli occupation of Ramallah in the West Bank of Palestine, twelve-year-old Karim and his friends create a secret place for themselves where they can momentarily forget the horrors of war.

War and Its AftermathRefugee ExperienceWar ZoneMiddle Grade
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The Other Side of Truth

Beverley Naidoo · 252 pages

Will the truth harm them — or save them?When Nigeria's corrupt military government kills their mother, twelve-year-old Sade and her brother Femi think their lives are over. Out of fear for their safety, their father, an outspoken journalist, decides to smuggle the children out of Nigeria and into London, where their uncle lives. But when they get to the cold and massive city, they find themselves

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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The Good Braider

Terry Farish · 224 pages

Follows Viola as she survives brutality in war-torn Sudan, makes a perilous journey, lives as a refugee in Egypt, and finally reaches Portland, Maine, where her quest for freedom and security is hampered by memories of past horrors and the traditions her mother and other Sudanese adults hold dear. Includes historical facts and a timeline of Sudan.

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar ZoneCultural Identity
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Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War‐Torn Syria in a Wheelchair

Nujeen Mustafa · 312 pages

This book tells the inspiring true story of a remarkable young hero: Nujeen Mustafa, a teenager born with cerebral palsy, whose harrowing journey from war-ravaged Syria to Germany in a wheelchair is a breathtaking tale of fortitude, grit, and hope that lends a face to the greatest humanitarian issue of our time, the Syrian refugee crisis.For millions around the globe, sixteen-year-old Nujeen Musta

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar ZoneTeen Protagonist
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Refugee

Alan Gratz · 352 pages

Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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Letters from Rifka

Karen Hesse · 148 pages

Daunting tale of a Jewish girl's journey during Anti-Semitic Germany.

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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90 Miles to Havana

Enrique Flores-Galbis · 298 pages

The author's experience, as one of 14,000 children moved from Cuba to a refugee camp in Miami in 1961, is told through engaging, fast-paced writing and well-developed characters. When unrest hits the streets of Havana, Cuba, Julian's parents must make the heartbreaking decision to send him and his two brothers away to Miami via the Pedro Pan operation. But when the boys get to Miami, they are t

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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Parvana's Journey

Deborah Ellis · 204 pages

Parvana sets out alone to walk across war torn Afghanistan in search of her family. Her mother, sister and little brother are missing and she has just buried her father. A look at the situation in Afghanistan and the courage and resilience that can keep children afloat even in the most terrible circumstances.

Refugee ExperienceWar ZoneMiddle GradeTeen Protagonist
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What Is the What

Dave Eggers · 475 pages

*What Is the What* is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children--the so-called Lost Boys--was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the Un

Refugee ExperienceImmigrationWar ZoneHistorical Fiction
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Under the Persimmon Tree

Suzanne Fisher Staples · 296 pages

During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmal, a young refugee from Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her huband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathWar ZoneHistorical Fiction
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The Last Rose of Shanghai

Weina Dai Randel · 429 pages

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathImmigrationHistorical Fiction
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Under the Udala Trees

Chinelo Okparanta · 332 pages

Ijeoma, a young Nigerian girl displaced during their civil war, begins a powerful love affair with another refugee girl from a different ethnic community. When the pair are discovered, they must learn the cost of living a lie amidst taboos and prejudices. Even as her nation contends with and recovers from the effects of war and division, Ijeoma seeks a glimmer of hope for a future where a woman mi

Refugee ExperienceWar and Its AftermathWar ZoneHistorical Fiction
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