Zephaniah, Benjamin: Refugee Boy
I choose that book because I’m interested in topics like migration. Refugees, like the boy in the book, have to overcome so many obstacles and often they have to leave their family behind. I think the title fits the book perfectly and also the cover is very suitable. It does what you expect from a cover: It gives you a clear impression of the story.
The opening of the story is very sudden, because you are simply thrown into it. The story first takes place in Ethiopia, the homeland of Alem’s father, where soldiers get into the house of the family and chase them away. In the next country Eritrea, the homeland of Alem’s mother they again get chased away by soldiers. So Alem’s father decides to take Alem on a “holiday” to London.
I think the book was neither difficult nor really easy to read. For me the best part of the book was when Alem told his father that the man’s hair who controlled the passports were burnt, because the were ginger.
Zephaniah, Benjamin: Refugee Boy
Pages: 284
Rating: ****
Signatur: FE.J / ZEP
© Review and Illustration: Felix Fleck, 5Am (September 2018)