Refugee Week 2025 - Young Adult perspectives

Updated May 22, 2025
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A land of permanent goodbyes
Abawi, Atia
Paper Book
Tareq lives in Syria with his warm and loving family, until the bombs strike. He, his father, and his younger sister are the only survivors, and they have no choice but to go to Raqqa, where they have extended family. But Raqqa is a stronghold for Daesh, the militant group claiming to follow the...
City of saints and thieves
Anderson, Natalie C.
Paper Book
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Gone Girl in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya.   In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the...
Let's go swimming on doomsday
Anderson, Natalie C.
Paper Book
Forced to become a child soldier, a sixteen-year-old Somali refugee must confront his painful past in this haunting, thrilling tale of loss and redemption for fans of A Long Way Gone and What is the What When Abdi's family is kidnapped, he's forced to do the...
A hope more powerful than the sea : one teen refugee's incredible story of love, loss, and survival
Fleming, Melissa
Paper Book
The extraordinary true story of one teen refugee's quest to find a new life--now adapted for young readers A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea tells the story of Doaa Al-Zamel, a Syrian girl whose life was upended in 2011 by her country's brutal civil war. She and her...
The Bone Sparrow
Fraillon, Zana
Paper Book
"Indispensable."-Booklist (starred review) CARNEGIE MEDAL 2017 FINALIST Subhi is a refugee. He was born in an Australian permanent detention center after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant homeland, and the center is...
The awakening
Epps, Omar
Paper Book
From beloved actor and producer Omar Epps and writer Clarence A. Haynes comes the biggest epic fantasy of the year. A powerful saga of three teens, the children of refugees from a fallen African utopia, who must navigate their newfound powers in a climate-ravaged New York City. Perfect for fans...
My father, the panda killer
Hoang, Jamie Jo
Paper Book
A poignant coming-of-age story told in two alternating voices: a California teenager railing against the Vietnamese culture, juxtaposed with her father as an eleven-year-old boat person on a harrowing and traumatic refugee journey from Vietnam to the United States. "A profoundly...
In search of safety : voices of refugees
Kuklin, Susan
Paper Book
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,...
Butterfly yellow
Lai, Thanhha
Paper Book
Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction! Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, Ibi Zoboi, and Erika L. Sánchez, this gorgeously written and deeply moving novel is the YA debut from the award-winning author of Inside Out & Back Again. 4 starred reviews! In the...
When clouds touch us
Lai, Thanhha
Paper Book
A Boston Globe-Horn Book Award finalist! Inspired by the author's own childhood, this stunning novel in verse, the sequel to the award-winning #1 bestseller Inside Out and Back Again, picks up two years after Hà and her family arrive in Alabama as refugees from the Việt Nam War....
From Here
Mufleh, Luma
Paper Book
In her coming-of-age memoir, refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee. With no word for "gay" in Arabic, Luma may not have known what to call the feelings she had...
Finding refuge : real-life immigration stories from young people
Rouse, Victorya
Paper Book
When you read about war in your history book or hear about it in the news, do you ever wonder what happens to the families and children in the places experiencing war? Many families in these situations decide that they must leave their homes to stay alive. What happens to them? ...
The next new Syrian girl
Shukairy, Ream
Paper Book
A Syrian American and Syrian refugee who are at odds must chase a haunting secret that leads them all the way to Jordan in this sharp-witted novel perfect for fans of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.  Khadija Shami is a Syrian American high school...
Unaccompanied : stories of brave teenagers seeking asylum
White, Tracy
Paper Book
One of the 2024 Best Graphic Novels for Teens by the American Library Association Life at home is so unbearable that these kids will risk their lives and face colossal challenges to escape to the United States and find safety.  This book tells the...

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