Stormy Seas: Stories of Young Boat Refugees

by Mary Beth Leatherdale

Other authorsEleanor Shakespeare (Illustrator)

Hardcover, 2017

Status

Coming Soon

Call number

305.9

Collection

Children's Books

Genres

Nonfiction

Publication

Annick Press (2017), 64 pages

Description

"A desperate last hope for safety and freedom. The plight of refugees risking their lives at sea has, unfortunately, made the headlines all too often in the past few years. This book presents five true stories, from 1939 to today, about young people who lived through the harrowing experience of setting sail in search of asylum: Ruth and her family board the St. Louis to escape Nazism; Phu sets out alone from war-torn Vietnam; Jose? tries to reach the United States from Cuba; Najeeba fl es Afghanistan and the Taliban; and after losing his family, Mohamed abandons his village on the Ivory Coast in search of a new life. Stormy Seas combines a vivid and contemporary collage-based design with dramatic storytelling to produce a book that makes for riveting reading as well as a source of timely information. These remarkable accounts will give readers a keen appreciation of the devastating effects of war and poverty on youth like themselves, and helps put the mounting current refugee crisis into stark context."--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Karen59

Unfortunately Stormy Seas comes at an unsympathetic and ugly time for refugees in the United States and EU. It is a time where angry debates, pernicious laws and frankly hate speech and actions are directed towards them. Right now gates are closing to Syrian refugees and borders are tightening or

closed to those who are desperate and fearful for their lives. It makes me heartsick. Fortunately we have Stormy Seas to remind us that this has been an historical struggle that has happened since the 1600's and probably before. She shows us how all over the country, yours and mine, children were turned away despite being in danger and this has happened over and over again. Her focus in on children who are young boat refugees. Some came with family and some did not. Their fear and suffering are evident yet these young children find a place and some peace as they become citizens in their new country. The book is visually arresting. Using collage, picture, paint and a myriad of styles the pictures shows us the perils and promise of their harrowing journeys.

Thank you to Netgalley who gave me this book to review for an honest opinion.

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LibraryThing member DonnaMarieMerritt

I highly recommend this book. After meticulous research and connecting with young refugees to hear their stories, Mary Beth Leatherdale presents their first-person accounts, the reasons they had to flee, their harrowing journeys, and what ultimately became of them. The children range in age from 11

to 18. Ruth escapes Nazi Germany, Phu leaves South Vietnam, Jose gets out of Cuba, Najeeba runs from the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Mohamed flees the Ivory Coast civil war. Their experiences are terrifying and their chosen places of asylum are far from welcoming. I broke down and cried several times, thinking of my own children in those situations. The history of each country they left is included, but none of it is too dense—Eleanor Shakespeare's layout, illustrations, and graphic design held my interest, and I believe it's broken up in a way that will keep the attention of middle and high school students. I'm not sure how much the current president would understand, but I wish we could make him sit down and read a list of required books. If so, this would be one of them.

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LibraryThing member eduscapes

STORMY SEAS by Mary Beth Leatherdale tells the refugee stories of five young people from around the globe.
Using collage-based design, this highly-illustrated book shares the true stories of boys and girls who sought to escape violence or poverty by sailing to a new country. Fact boxes, sidebars,

timelines, and other informational asides contribute to the value of this work of nonfiction for both literature activities and social studies reports.
Librarians will find this timely book to be popular with upper elementary and middle school youth. The unusual illustrations are an added draw for young readers.
Published by Annick Press, an imprint of Ingram on April 11, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

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LibraryThing member ewyatt

A quick read with lots of history and personal stories of leaving home included. Each chapter focuses on an immigrant from a different time & place. The story contextualizes the persons choice, gives a quote about that person's experience, and does a what happened next.
This book would be a great

teaching tool and provide insight into the plight and drive of refugees.

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LibraryThing member taralentz

There is a Table of Contents at the beginning of the book and on 2 pages is a brief timeline from 1670-1914 of boat refugees. There are 5 chapters in the book that is dedicated to a different person and their refugee story. Each chapter has how old the person was, where they were leaving, why they

were leaving, and where they hope to go. Each chapter includes quotes from the people and what ultimaentaly happened to them, and statistics on what happened toe the boat. There are maps for each chapter photographs of some of the people, drawlings of some of what was happening in the book, and photographs of buildings and ships. At the end is 2 more pages that have the boat refugee timeline from 1939 to 2016, as well as resources used.

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