In Search of Safety: Voices of Refugees

by Susan Kuklin

Overview

Five refugees recount their courageous journeys to America — and the unimaginable struggles that led them to flee their homelands — in a powerful work from the author of Beyond Magenta and We Are Here to Stay.

“From 1984, when I was born, until July 16, 2017, when I arrived in the United States, I never lived in a place where there was no war.” — Fraidoon

An Iraqi woman who survived capture by ISIS. A Sudanese teen growing up in civil war and famine. An Afghan interpreter for the U.S. Army living under threat of a fatwa. They are among the five refugees who share their stories in award-winning author and photographer Susan Kuklin’s latest masterfully crafted narrative. The five, originally from Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Iraq, and Burundi, give gripping first-person testimonies about what it is like to flee war, face violent threats, grow up in a refugee camp, be sold into slavery, and resettle in America. Illustrated with full-color photographs of the refugees’ new lives in Nebraska, this work is essential reading for understanding the devastating impact of war and persecution — and the power of resilience, optimism, and the will to survive. Included in the end matter are chapter notes, information on resettlement and U.S. citizenship, historical time lines of war and political strife in the refugees’ countries of origin, resources for further reading, and an index.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763679606
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/27/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	539,061
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	HL700L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Susan Kuklin is the award-winning author and photographer of more than thirty books for children and young adults that address social issues and culture, including No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row; Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, a Stonewall Honor Book; and We Are Here to Stay: Voices of Undocumented Young Adults. Her photographs have appeared in documentary films and in Time magazine, Newsweek, and the New York Times. Susan Kuklin lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Welcome to Nebraska, Welcome Home ix

Part I Arrive

Fraidoon | Country of Origin: Afghanistan | Ethnic Group: Tajik

Map: Afghanistan x

1 The First Day of My Life 3

2 Fraidoon 17

3 Fred 28

4 Who Would Marry Someone with a Fatwa on His Head? 35

5 Coming to America, the Hard Way 47

6 The Black Hole of Red Tape 54

Part II Birth

Nathan | Country of Origin: Myanmar/Thailand | Ethnic Group: Kan

Map: Myanmar and Thailand 64

7 Flip-Flops, Rice, Soccer 67

8 TV, Hamburgers, Football 77

Part III Run

Nyarout | Country of Origin: South Sudan | Ethnic Group: Nuer

Map: South Sudan and Ethiopia 92

9 In Africa 95

10 In America 109

Part IV Survive

Shireen | Country of Origin: Northern Iraq | Ethnic Group: Yazidi

Map: Northern Iraq 134

11 Captured 137

12 For Sale 147

13 The Black Hole of Captivity 155

14 After 165

Part V Home

Dieudonné | Country of Origin: Burundi | Ethnic Group: Hutu and Tutsi

Map: Burundi and Tanzania 170

15 Early One Morning 173

16 Heaven 183

17 Umoja 193

Part VI Notes and Resources

The Refugee Process 214

Author's Note 218

Acknowledgments 221

About Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska 224

About the Yazda Cultural Center 227

Chapter Notes 228

Time Lines 235

Resources 241

Index 244

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/01/2020

In straightforward prose, this latest work by Kuklin (We Are Here to Stay) introduces five people who left all they knew to escape persecution in their home countries: Fraidoon, from Afghanistan; Nathan, born in a Thai refugee camp; Nyarout, from South Sudan; Shireen, from Northern Iraq; and Dieudonné, from Burundi. Each offers clear, often disturbing stories of events leading up to their escapes and established lives in the United States, where arrival presented its own challenges. The firsthand accounts of war, abduction into sex slavery, torture, and loss can be difficult to read, but they make plain the desperate plight of people seeking asylum, making this work an important addition to any collection. Each story is accompanied by explanatory text from the author, along with photographs that acquaint the reader with the refugee and their circumstances. Back matter provides information on the resettling process, agencies mentioned, and a historical timeline for each country. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Kuklin, who has previously written about similar issues (see 2019's We Are Here To Stay), does a brilliant job of capturing and transmitting the gripping, often raw, but always hopeful first-person testimonies, and readers cannot help but feel empathy for the individuals as they learn the horrors they survived (but never overcame, in some cases). A brutal, must-read account.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The firsthand accounts of war, abduction into sex slavery, torture, and loss can be difficult to read, but they make plain the desperate plight of people seeking asylum, making this work an important addition to any collection. Each story is accompanied by explanatory text from the author, along with photographs that acquaint the reader with the refugee and their circumstances. Back matter provides information on the resettling process, agencies mentioned, and a historical timeline for each country.
—Publishers Weekly Online (starred review)

Representing Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Iraq, and Burundi, these five refugees all offer testimony on the realities of growing up in a refugee camp, being sold into slavery, and then finding refuge. All five refugees possess the will to survive and to seek safety for themselves and their families...The book calls attention to problems in countries at war and how people can seek help, become a citizen, or resettle in the United States through certain agencies.
—School Library Connection

This continues Kuklin’s substantial body of nonfiction centering the lives of marginalized individuals...Candid and posed photographs add valuable visual information. A significant theme threading through the stories is how long and involved the refugee resettlement experience is, usually taking years, reams of paperwork, and constant diligence on the part of every person involved. A necessary addition to middle-school curriculum.
—Booklist

The circumstances of all five refugees were perilous and frightening; their tenacity and courage (and even humor) are salutary. An exemplary appendix of notes and resources broadens the impact of the individual accounts; the accounts themselves personalize the crisis and statistics.
—The Horn Book

The photo-illustrated stories range from heartbreaking to utterly terrifying, and even the smoothest outcomes involve danger, disorientation, or multiple attempts to find a location that offers support, employment, and education...Readers who found Kuklin’s We Are Here to Stay (BCCB 12/18) illuminating will want to explore this facet of American immigration.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

From the Publisher

03/01/2020

Gr 9 Up—Kuklin features five powerful stories of refugees that culminate in making a home in Nebraska. While the voices are diverse, they have all experienced incomprehensible trauma before settling in America. The people include an Afghani translator for the military, a Karen man (presently known as Burma or Myanmar) without a homeland, a South Sudanese survivor of civil war, a Yazidi captive of ISIS, and a man of combined Hutu and Tutsi heritage who escaped genocide. Each story details their upbringing and then explains the conflict leading to their status and how they were able to relocate. A reflection on their current welfare ends each section. The book lives up to its subtitle and packs a visceral punch for readers. Discussions of rape, physical and emotional abuse, and war are not sugarcoated. For teen readers, the details could be unsettling. Kuklin maintains a clear focus on the first-person narratives, but they are a little uneven because English is a new language for the speakers. Sentences are stunted and short yet powerfully demonstrate global differences in politically or religiously unstable countries. Most of the refugees were able to relocate using non-government organizations (NGOs). VERDICT Add this title to collections to continue to develop comprehensive #Ownvoices narratives. This one reaches wide and deep.—Alicia Abdul, Albany High School, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2020-02-09
Chronicles the painful, yet powerfully uplifting, stories of five refugees who came to the U.S. in search of better futures.

The people sharing their stories are Shireen, a Yazidi woman from Iraq who was sold into sex slavery by the Islamic State group; Nyarout, a Nuer woman from South Sudan who grew up in civil war and famine; Fraidoon, a Tajik man from Afghanistan living under the threat of a fatwa; Nathan, a Karen man from Myanmar who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand; and Dieudonné, a Hutu and Tutsi man from Burundi who fled ethnic cleansing at age 4. Written in a forthright and unembellished manner and not for the faint of heart, this book will find its place among essential readings for understanding the devastating toll conflicts have on populations throughout the world. It is also a beautiful testimony—a lesson in life, really—to the power of resilience and will to survive displayed by each of the five protagonists, now resettled in Nebraska. Kuklin, who has previously written about similar issues (see 2019’s We Are Here To Stay), does a brilliant job of capturing and transmitting the gripping, often raw, but always hopeful first-person testimonies, and readers cannot help but feel empathy for the individuals as they learn the horrors they survived (but never overcame, in some cases).

A brutal, must-read account. (maps, sources, author’s note, chapter notes, timelines, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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