Refugee Boy - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Benjamin Zephaniah is a high-profile international author, with an enormous breadth of appeal, equally popular with both adults and children. He is most well known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults and ground-breaking performance poetry for children, and his novels for young people include Face, Refugee Boy, Gangsta Rap and Teacher's Dead. As well as poetry and novels, he writes plays and music.

Lemn Sissay is author of five books of poetry and has appeared in many anthologies. He reads poetry on stages throughout the world. He is an honorary Doctor of Letters and was awarded the 2010 travelling award scholarship from the Society of Authors. His play Something Dark, directed by John McGrath, was the winner of a Race in the Media Award (RIMA). Internal Flight is a television documentary about his life in care and subsequent journey to Ethiopia where he found his family, made by the BBC.

Sissay is associate artist at Southbank Centre, Europe's largest arts complex. Sissay curated the world's first Literature Festival of the Sea. His Landmark Poems are displayed on the walls and streets of Manchester and London. In London they adorn the Royal Festival Hall; “Gilt of Cain”, commissioned by City of London was erected near Fenchurch Street Station and was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu. He was the first poet to write for the London Olympics 2012 and his poem “Spark Catchers” remains onsite today. Lemn is patron of the Reader Organisation and the Letterbox Club. He is education ambassador for the Arvon Foundation and Trustee of World Book Night. All details can be found at http://www.lemnsissay.com

Rezensionen

Grade 6-9-A dust jacket that resembles an airmail envelope complete with stamp cancellation will lure readers to this somewhat disappointing tale. Alem Kelo is caught in the current political disputes raging between Ethiopia and Eritrea. He and his father flee to London where Alem is left alone to seek asylum with British authorities while his father returns to Africa, where he discovers that his wife is missing. The child is caught in the web of the judicial system as his foster care and sanctuary are determined. While the story has all the elements of a gripping tale, it often reads like a first, rough draft. A prelude to the book, titled "Ethiopia," finds soldiers barging into the Kelos' house. Shooting and shouting result, and the family is ordered to leave the country. An almost duplicate scene labeled "Eritrea" follows. In an effort to show that neither country embraces the union of this Ethiopian man and Eritrean woman and its progeny, the question immediately arises, are the soldiers Ethiopian or Eritrean? Throughout the author merely tells, rarely shows. Wording is awkward and often repetitive. The result is the ponderous text of a story about war and refugees that needs to be told; unfortunately, this effort falls short.
Daniel L. Darigan, West Chester University, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Zephaniah, a London-based performance poet, sends a strong political message in his realistic account of a young refugee's struggles. With both of his parents' homelands at war, 14-year-old Alem is persecuted because of the family's mixed nationality; his Ethiopian father and Eritrean mother decide that their son will be safest abroad. As the novel opens, Alem's father brings him to London "on holiday" and then abandons him, leaving only a letter to explain his reasoning. While Alem's parents fight for the unification of Ethiopia and Eritrea thousands of miles away, Alem must mount a battle for political asylum. After being moved from an institution to a more welcoming foster home, Alem musters an army of friends and compassionate social workers who help him combat a cold and impersonal system. Rather than delving deeply into his protagonist's emotions, the author adopts a relatively objective stance. Readers see Alem's reactions from the outside, not as an internal process, as the government initially refuses to grant him asylum and later, when both of his parents are killed (his mother in Africa, his father in London). While audience members may feel distanced from the young hero, they will be outraged by the injustice he confronts and moved by the tragedies he endures. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 8-12. Alem Kelo, the teenage son of an Eritrean mother and an Ethopian father, is endangered by the civil war raging between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Considered a "mongrel" by soldiers on both sides, Alem flees to England with his father, who abandons him so that Alem can seek refugee status. Alem is a bright, good-hearted boy who speaks three languages, but he doesn't have a clue about English life and laws. He receives help from the Refugee Council, but his life becomes increasingly difficult. At last, with aid from his friends and foster parents, he is able to stay safely in England. Zephaniah's writing is occasionally too stark, and secondary characters are sometimes flat. But Alem and his loving father are heartbreakingly real, and the plight of refugees in England is powerfully shown. This is a memorable story that will make a great choice for booktalking. Pair it with Beverly Naidoo's The Other Side of Truth, Booklist's 2001 Top of the List winner for Youth Fiction. Jean Franklin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved