Retell:
Refugee by Alan Gratz is a novel based on the perspective of three kids named Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud all determined to escape. Josef is a Jewish boy in the 1930s Nazis Germany. From the fear of being put into concentration camps, he and his family decide to find freedom by traveling on a ship to Cuba. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. In her country, there are riots of food shortages and persecution. Her president named Fidel Castro had not allowed anyone to leave the country. However, when he gave the privilege to Cubans to leave, Isabel and her family took the opportunity to escape on a poorly constructed boat to find freedom in the United States. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. When there is destruction and violence in his homeland, he and his
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The novel is alternating chapters between three different children, they may be fictional characters, but their stories are based on historical events. Josef’s tale was during the 1930s of the Nazis when Jews were either put into concentrations camps, hide from all the danger or escaped to freedom. Isabel’s story took place in 1994 when there was a protest of hundreds of Cubans against the government policies of Cuba. Mahmoud narrative was during a Syrian war in 2015 of Bashar al Assad's large group of rebels fighting against his own people.
Reflect:
Questions:
Was there any specific historical event(s) that inspired you to write this novel?
Why that/those specific historical event(s)?
Do you believe this is one of your most motivational and informative books?
I imagine how the lives of the three families would have played out after escaping?
I wonder what it would have been like to be in such traumatic conditions?
Josef, you may have lost your father and given up your life for your sister, however, you must know that because of your sacrifice your grandchildren, nieces and nephews that you never got to me will now have a chance to