How Writing Comics Is Different From Writng Novels
I give this book 5 stars because I like the plot line and how all the characters are tied through different time periods. I also
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What are character traits of Isabel?
Source(s)
Refugee
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Character Study for the Novel Refugee by Alan Gratz
The six-word memoir is a form of microblogging and is a great way to get students to summarize what is happening in the story while thinking carefully about the character's perspective. This product contains pre-filled pages for students with key terms and literary devices identified, including page numbers for the students to go back into the text and reread for clarification. Detailed instructions on how to teach this writing style to your class, as well as a guided introductory lesson, are also included.
Also included: student pages for illustrated six-word memoirs, a grading rubric, and a gallery walk reflection page, vocabulary word analysis, and 4 final character analysis pages. These lessons are designed to get students talking and sharing their thinking about the characters in the text. Because this format is about quick summary writing it could also be used as a daily warm-up activity to review and reflect on the chapters read the previous day.
Teaching Duration
2 months
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Refugee Summary |
Refugee follows the stories of three refugee children fleeing conflicts in their home countries. The first protagonist, Josef, is a 12-year-old Jewish boy living in Germany in 1938, during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. On Kristallnacht, Josef's home is ransacked by Nazi soldiers and his father Aaron is taken to a concentration camp. Six months later, Aaron is allowed to leave the camp on the condition that he immediately leaves the country, and so he; Josef; Josef's mother, Rachel; and Josef's sister, Ruthie, all plan to board the MS Saint Louis, which is bringing Jewish refugees to Cuba.
When Josef, Rachel, and Ruthie meet up with Aaron at the ship, Josef notices that his father is paranoid and terrified following his experience at the concentration camp. Aaron is so terrified that he refuses to go to the synagogue on board the ship to attend Josef's bar mitzvah, fearing that the synagogue is a trap that the Nazis have set for the Jewish passengers.
Two weeks after leaving Germany, the ship approaches Cuba and the passengers must undergo a medical inspection. Aaron is reminded of the roll calls at the concentration camp, and he starts to whimper while standing in line for the inspection. Josef worries that the doctor will declare Aaron mentally unstable and won't let him in, and so Josef slaps his father to get him to snap out of it and lies that the Nazis will get Aaron if he doesn't stay quiet. Josef realizes upon doing this that he has traded places with his father and has become the adult in the family. After the medical inspection, the passengers ask when they'll be allowed into Cuba. The Cuban officers say, "mañana," meaning "tomorrow."
A few days later, a Nazi official named Schiendick and two other officers raid Josef's family's cabin, destroying all of their possessions and frightening Aaron once more. Later that day, Aaron attempts to commit suicide by jumping off the ship, but he is rescued and taken to the mainland by a Cuban police officer named Mariano Padron. A week passes, and each day the Cuban police continue to tell the passengers that they will be able to disembark "tomorrow." At the end of the week, two young girls, Renata and Evelyne, are allowed to leave with their father, who already lives in Cuba. But the rest of the passengers are not allowed to disembark. Josef finds Officer Padron to ask if they can join Aaron in Cuba, but Padron informs him that Aaron is not fit enough to board the ship, nor can the rest of the family disembark. Padron tells Josef that he is simply "doing his job."
The St. Louis then sails north to make a plea to the U.S. to let them in. On the way, Josef and a group of men try to overtake the ship by taking the crew hostage, but Captain Schroeder talks them down. Once they reach the U.S., the American government refuses the ship, they are forced to go back to Europe. Josef, Rachel, and Ruthie are assigned to be resettled in France, but eight months later Germany invades France and they are forced to go on the run once more. Nazis catch them in a small French town, and though Rachel offers them all of the money and jewelry they have, the Nazis tell her that she can choose one child to set free, and one child to go to the concentration camps.
The second main character, Isabel, is an 11-year-old girl living in Havana, Cuba, in 1994, during Fidel Castro's tenure. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been giving aid to Cuba, Cuba experiences a severe food shortage and many people are starving and unemployed. Some try to escape Cuba, but Castro has a policy wherein people who try to leave are imprisoned. Isabel's father, Geraldo, tried to escape and was thrown in jail for a year. Now, when riots break out in Havana and a policeman threatens to jail Geraldo again, Geraldo resolves to escape the country the next day. That evening, Castro lifts his policy, allowing people to leave the country. Isabel rallies the rest of her family—her mother, Teresa, who is pregnant and due in a week, and her grandfather Lito—to go with Geraldo to the United States. She enlists the help of her neighbors, the Castillos, who are building a boat and planning to leave as well. Isabel trades her most prized possession, her trumpet, for gasoline so that they can leave that night.
Isabel, Teresa, Geraldo, Lito, Señor Castillo, Señora Castillo, and their son Iván (who is Isabel's best friend) all load into the boat. Policemen are on the shore watching them leave, but don't do anything to stop them. Then the Castillos' other son, Luis, and his girlfriend Amara, who are police officers, desert the force and jump into the boat as they are leaving for Miami. Because they are deserting, the other police officers start to shoot, and a bullet pierces the side of the boat. Water starts to fill the boat, and they attempt to plug the hole as they navigate towards Miami. They continue to navigate until the motor stops working, and the water starts to flow in more rapidly. They bail as much as they can; meanwhile, Isabel starts to worry about how she will no longer be connected to her Cuban heritage in the U.S. She had never been able to count a Cuban rhythm called clave and wonders how she will learn how to do this in Miami.
Later that evening, a tanker surges toward their boat. They are able to avoid it, but the water rushing into their boat carries away their medicine, bandages, and matches into the sea. Additionally, Señor Castillo is thrown from the boat, and Isabel dives into the water to save him. The next day, a storm forms, and they are hit with a driving rain. During the storm, Isabel remembers her grandmother Lita, who died two years earlier after she was swept out to sea during a cyclone. The day after the storm, the sun breaks through with a blazing heat, and Teresa starts to get a fever. Suddenly, they spot the shore, and grow excited that they have reached Miami. But they are directed to a dock, where an officer tells them that they are in the Bahamas and are not allowed to dock. Before they turn back, some tourists give them food, water, and aspirin to take on their journey, for which Isabel is immensely grateful.
As they continue on their journey, more and more cracks appear in the boat. They decide to take turns floating alongside the boat, to lessen the weight inside. But then, when Iván is in the water, he is attacked by sharks. His leg is bitten and mangled, and he dies when they aren't able to stop the bleeding. Isabel grieves for her friend, particularly when, the next day, they are able to see Miami in the distance. As they start to row toward the shore, a Coast Guard boat starts to steer toward them. Lito then confesses that he had been the Cuban police officer who turned Josef and the other Jewish people away in Havana in 1939. Due to his guilt, he decides to sacrifice himself to allow the others to continue on to Miami. He jumps off of their boat and distracts the Coast Guard so that the others can reach the shore. Meanwhile, Teresa goes into labor and has the baby as they approach the shore. Isabel carries her new baby brother, and the Fernandezes and Castillos are able to arrive in Miami.
Isabel and her family stay with her uncle Guillermo (Lito's brother) until they can get on their feet. Guillermo gifts Isabel a new trumpet, and when she tries out for band by playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a salsa style, she realizes that she is finally able to count clave.
Mahmoud, the third main character, is a 13-year-old boy living in Aleppo, Syria, in 2015. Syria has been experiencing a civil war since the Arab Spring of 2011, and Aleppo is constantly being bombed. Mahmoud has learned to blend in and be invisible in order to survive, and to protect his 10-year-old brother Waleed. One day, their apartment is hit with bombs. After this, Mahmoud; Waleed; their mother, Fatima; their father, Youssef; and their infant sister, Hana, all set off to try and seek refuge in Germany.
As Mahmoud's family drives to Turkey, Syrian soldiers get into their car but are quickly attacked, forcing Mahmoud and his family to evacuate their car and walk eight hours over two days to the Turkish border. Following this, they wait in Turkey for a boat that will take them to Greece. People constantly try to take advantage of them: a boy makes them pay to be escorted to a place where they can sleep, then sells them fake life vests. Each day, Mahmoud and his family are told that the boat to Greece will be ready for them "tomorrow," but this continues for seven days, leaving them exhausted and dejected. Finally, they are able to take a dinghy to Greece, but when a storm hits, they are thrown into the water. Mahmoud, Fatima, and Hana become separated from Youssef and Waleed, and they tread water for hours. Another dinghy passes them, but there is no room on the boat for Mahmoud or Fatima. Mahmoud asks them to take Hana, worried that she won't be able to survive if they had to remain in the water. They agree and take his baby sister, a loss that utterly traumatizes Fatima.
Hours later, Mahmoud and Fatima are finally rescued by the Greek Coast Guard, and they reunite with Waleed and Youssef. They continue on to Athens, Greece, but are unable to find Hana. The family travels without stopping through Macedonia, then take a taxi to Serbia. But the taxi driver holds them at gunpoint, demanding their money. They then walk the rest of the way to Serbia before continuing on to Hungary. At the Hungarian border, soldiers throw tear gas at them and take them to a detention center, where soldiers beat Youssef and call the Syrian refugees "parasites" and "filth." They are then relocated to a refugee camp. Mahmoud tries to be invisible to avoid more trouble, but then recognizes that only by being visible can he receive help. He decides simply to walk out of the refugee camp, and the other refugees follow suit. They walk 12 hours to Austria, gaining the attention of the news. When they reach the border, they are greeted by many Austrians and are given food, clothes, and medical attention. Still, they are unable to find Hana.
Mahmoud and his family continue to Germany and receive asylum there. After a month, they are placed with a host family while they start to build their new lives. The host family turns out to be Ruthie, now and old woman, and her husband, Saul. When she hears Mahmoud's story, and how they had to give up Hana, she assures him they will find her. Ruthie tells him her own story: how, when the Nazis had caught her, Josef, and Rachel in France, Josef made the choice to go to the concentration camps so that Ruthie could go free. Rachel and Josef then died in the camps. Ruthie comforts Mahmoud, telling him that they died so that she could live. Mahmoud is sad, but he is grateful that Ruthie lived, so that then she could help Mahmoud and his family. He is glad to have found a home in Germany.
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The book Refugee, written by Alan Gratz, is about; Josef, a Jewish boy living in Nazi Germany in the 1930's, Isabel, a Cuban girl in 1994 during the ruling of Castro, and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015. These 3 separate lives were put together into one book to symbolize what its really like to be living as a refugee.
Germany, 1938; the book starts out with Josef's story. This begins by Josef's home getting ransacked and having his father taken away by Nazi's for illegally practicing law as he is Jewish.
Did you know?
Refugee was written in different stories throughout the book, switching on and off between the three main characters. This helps compare the lifestyles of the three refugee children.
In 1939, after a year of living in a Nazi controlled country without his father, Josef and his family decide to book a train to Cuba where they would wait until the U.S. were taking more Jews in for refugee.
Since the Jewish and Germans were divided, their trains had specified cars for each other and had different luxuries.
Just outside Havana, Cuba, 1994; the next chapter takes place in Isabel's eyes as a young Cuban girl living in poverty under Fidel Castro's ruling. Her and her family struggle collecting food and their everyday needs since there is a constant shortage of food.
Her friend / neighbor Ivan and his dad are building a boat in their shed secretly to escape to the U.S. and only Isabel and Ivan's family is known of this.
Nazi Germany Armored Train
Aleppo Syria, 2015. Mahmoud, a boy living in Syria during the war, is introduced. Mahmoud tries to stay invisible from everyone and avoids contact from people for his own safety.
Hamburg, Germany. Josef and his family made it to Hamburg and before boarding the ship, he met his father. Josef and the rest of his family havent seen his father since he was taken by the Nazi's. Aaron ( his father ) was sickly looking and was acting paranoid about the Nazi's and suspicious of everything.
He was obviously put in a concentration camp or derived from food from where they took his father.
Overall throughout the cruise, Josef is having a lot of fun on the St. Louis ship, for once no one is dividing him or criticizing him for being Jewish.
Havana, Cuba. A riot broke out while Isabel was in town with her father getting supplies. Isabel found her father being beaten by police for throwing a rock at a window. She stepped in between the fight and stopped it. She knew that her, her father, and the rest of their family are going to have to leave Cuba immediately.
Aleppo, Syria. That afternoon, Mahmoud's home, and most of the building he lived in was bombed. Half his walls were missing and he couldn't find his mother and brother. Once his family was all together outside the building, it collapsed, and they no longer have a home. Him and his family are going to Germany to take refugee.
"Barrel bomb strikes kill 72 in Aleppo province"
Havana, Cuba. Castro announced over television that anyone can leave Cuba if they want to. So that what they will do. Isabel's family is leaving Cuba on their neighbor Ivan's dads boat.
Isabel's family was being shot at while they were on the boat because his dad escaped from jail.
North of Cuba, 1 day from home, their boat motor died. To try and fix it they tried cooling it off by pouring sea water over it, but all Isabel could notice was the big tanker headed right at them.
Did you know?
Castro claimed he survived 634 attempts or plots to assassinate him.
Atlantic Ocean, 1939; 8 days from home. Joseph has his Bar Mitzvah on the ship, but later overheard some of the ship crew taking about other ships being involved, and that if they get there first, they might turn them away and they wont be able to take refuge in Cuba.
10 days from home.
He followed the crew members below deck and realized its reality down here. Reality as in, there isn't just joy and fun, it's knowing the consequences of each action taken to be safe.
Aleppo, Syria. They are 1 day from home. As they are traveling, they come across some soldiers. Luckily, they were fighting on their side. As they were talking, the soldiers got in their car and needed to be taken to the highway. On the trip there, gunshots were fired at the car and the tire popped and one of the bullets hit one of the soldiers in the head. Now Mahmoud's family has no transportation and had to leave all their belongings behind.
Outside Havana Harbor. The crew members searches Josef's family's cabin and terrorized them, insulting their "race". His father sat curled up whispering in the corner.
North of Cuba, The tanker crashed into their boat and Isabel's grandmother fell and disappeared under the waves.
They continued to keep scooping water out from their boat.
Kilis Turkey, 2015; 2 days from home. Mahmoud's family got to the border of Turkey against the fence. They seen hundreds of other Syrian civilians waiting in line with them. As soon as they got into turkey, his father decided that they cant stay here forever and that they are going to need a smuggler to get them farther away.
Izmia Turkey, 2015; 4 days from home. All the hotels were booked already so they had to take refuge in a abandon mall. They plan to take a boat the next day.
The next day. They got their boat and headed out. but eventually was bombarded by rockets exploding in front of them.
"cruise missile emerging from the ocean"
Outside Havana Harbor. Josef's father jumped into the sea of fear of being captured by the Nazi's again.
Josef's father was later taken away. and him, his mother and sister were on the run again.
Josef's story was never finished. and was ended by a Nazi giving his mother an option to choose which child of hers dies.
Miami Beach, Florida. Isabel finally made it to Florida for refuge.
Mediterranean Sea, 2015. Mahmoud's sister was gone, and so were his father and brother. He screamed for hep from a mans dingy nearby but there wasn't room.
Mahmoud finally got to safety with his family.
His family made it to Germany, and are ready to make it their new home.
The morals of each story showed the heartbreak and terror of different families and which were more terrifying than the other. Not to compare each other, but to show what each person had to go through. From bombing to gunfire and losses of loved ones, these were the stories of refugees.
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What are Mahmoud Bishara's character traits?
Source(s)
Refugee
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Meet Mahmoud, the Syrian refugee creating unique gifts that bring people together.
Olivia Long news
Mahmoud is from Damascus in Syria. Having fled to Greece, he found himself stuck in Softex refugee camp, on the edge of the country's second city, Thessaloniki.
Based in and around the warehouse of an old Softex toilet roll factory, the camp was notorious for its crime and deprivation. It was here that Mahmoud refused to resign himself to a long, frustrating wait for an unknown future. Instead, he has decided to volunteer with our partner InterVolve, working to improve living conditions for the camp's residents.
Mahmoud joined InterVolve's team of volunteer carpenters. He had no previous experience, but was soon producing a wide range of furniture and items for the camp.
Using the skills he's taught himself, Mahmoud now creates innovative, upcycled furniture and homeware, and custom gifts that tell a story. Mahmoud says that he aims use these creations to "send a message of love to all people".
Watch the video below to find out more, and order your own unique products from Mahmoud's website Giftstoria.
Order your own custom gifts from Mahmoud on the Giftstoria website or via Facebook.
The article was originally published here.
Refugee Mahmoud: Berlin Germany – 2015, Home Summary & Analysis |
For four weeks, Mahmoud, Waleed, Youssef, and Fatima live in a school in Munich, until a host family agrees to let them share their home. Escorted by a German relief worker, Mahmoud's family arrives at their home and are greeted by an elderly German man and woman. The relief worker introduces the man as Saul Rosenburg. Upon entering the Rosenburgs' home, Mahmoud is surprised to see the Star of David symbol—the couple is Jewish. Mahmoud knows that in the Middle East, Jews and Muslims had been fighting each other for decade, and thinks that they are in a "strange new world."
By referencing the conflict between Jews and Muslims, Gratz illustrates how this empathy can surpass even longstanding hatred between groups of people. Given the age of the elderly German couple, it's likely that they may have lived through World War II and experienced oppression themselves as Jewish people.
Active Themes
Frau Rosenberg gives Waleed a little stuffed rabbit, explaining through the translator that she is a toy designer. She says that she thought Mahmoud might be too old. He nods, but says that Frau Rosenburg can make one for Hana when they find her, explaining how they had to give her away. As the translator translates, Frau Rosenburg's smile fades and she leads Mahmoud into another room.
Frau Rosenburg recognizes that Mahmoud is too mature for a stuffed animal—that the traumatic experiences he has had to face in fleeing Syria and arriving in Germany have forced him to grow up far earlier than he should have to.
Active Themes
Frau Rosenburg explains that she was a refugee, too, and shows Mahmoud a picture of herself and her brother as young children. She tells Mahmoud the story of the St. Louis, and how they were resettled in France. Frau Rosenburg describes how the Nazis caught her along with her brother and mother, and gave her mother the choice to save only one child. Frau Rosenburg's brother chose for her mother, and offered to go to the concentration camp. Ruthie says that she doesn't remember much about her brother, but that his name was Josef and that he always wanted to be a grown-up. And when he chose to go to the concentration camp, he truly became a man.
Here, it becomes clear that Frau Rosenburg is actually Ruthie. This serves as the climax of the novel, as yet another connection is drawn among the book's three main protagonist. Frau Rosenburg again recognizes Mahmoud's maturity and ties it to Josef's own. She shows the reader how Josef, too, made the most mature decision of his life by sacrificing himself instead of forcing Rachel to choose between her two children. Again, this is a decision that a 13-year-old should never have to make, but the dire circumstances required it.
Active Themes
Frau Rosenburg tells Mahmoud that she only survived because a kind French woman took her in and raised her as family. When the war was over, she searched for Josef and Rachel, but they had both died in the camps. Then she met her husband Saul, and they started their own family. Frau Rosenburg shows Mahmoud more pictures. She explains that Josef and Rachel died so that she could live. She tells Mahmoud that they will find Hana and bring her home.
Ruthie understands that she is only alive because of the empathy of others. France took them in after Cuba refused them; Josef chose to save her life rather than his own; and the French woman recognized the value in her life and raised her as a daughter. All of these outcomes argue for the importance of kindness toward refugees.
Active Themes
Mahmoud is filled with sadness for Josef, but also with gratitude. Saul calls Frau Rosenburg back into the living room, referring to her as Ruthie. Looking at the photos, Mahmoud thinks about how Josef died so that Ruthie could live, and then one day welcome Mahmoud and his family into their home. Ruthie leads Mahmoud back into the living room, which is "bright and alive and filled with books and pictures of family and the smell of good food." Mahmoud thinks that it feels like a home.
Ruthie also recognizes her fortune in being alive, and her determination to help others in the same way that she received aid. But ultimately Gratz calls not only on those who had been refugees to show their kindness—over the course of the novel, the author has implicitly argued that all people are capable of empathy and aiding refugees who need help, in both big and small ways.
The article was originally published here.
Mahmoud
In Syria, Mahmoud was a successful tradesman, living happily with his wife and four children in a big house in the country's capital, Damascus. War forced him to flee, leaving everything behind in search of safety. Now he is trying to rebuild his life in the UK, but, unable to speak the language, it has been difficult for Mahmoud to keep a roof over his head and everyday tasks like buying food or taking the bus seem mountainous.
Quiet and unassuming, Mahmoud remembers life in Syria before the conflict broke out, "I really loved life back home; everything was very fast paced and things were happening all the time," he says, "There was a routine and every day I would go to work but on Fridays, which is when the weekend starts in Syria, we would go for big picnics. People in Damascus are famous for that. "
"Sometimes we'd go and discover new places in the countryside or we would go to someone's villa and have a barbeque. All the family would be there – around 30 to 50 people – including uncles, aunts; first, second and third generations."
The son of a successful printer, Mahmoud had started out his career as a skilled graphic designer before setting up his own business, trading in computers and then appliances including fridges and washing machines. "Damascus is well known for its successful tradesman," explains Mahmoud, "there is a culture there that when someone wants to start their own business, other tradesmen will rally round to support them until they are set up."
However, when the conflict began to grip the country, things became increasingly difficult for Mahmoud and his family. For a while they moved out of Damascus but everywhere they went, the conflict followed. "With cities erupting against the regime, airstrikes started; bombarding and wiping out cities, so we decided to head back to Damascus" says Mahmoud, "I stayed there for a year without any job because of what was going on. The house had started to get crowded as more and more family came for shelter. The floor that I used to live on with my wife now had three families in it."
When the conflict reached the heart of Damascus and airstrikes began near the family home Mahmoud decided that it was time to leave. The family fled to Lebanon where they lived for two years in terrible conditions before Mahmoud decided he would try and make the journey to safety in Europe.
Mahmoud began his odyssey in Turkey where, like so many, he was smuggled on a rubber boat to Greece. "We barely made it," he says, "the boat sank and many people drowned". Mahmoud made it to a deserted island in Greece where he was picked up by another boat. From Greece he travelled to Macedonia and on to Hungary where he narrowly avoided the authorities; sleeping in woods for 12 hours before paying an agent to take him to the Austrian border. Once in Austria, Mahmoud was arrested by the Austrian police who arranged to deport him to Germany. Mahmoud escaped and eventually got himself on a flight to the UK, arriving in September 2015.
Mahmoud remembers, "When we were in Vienna the people were quite welcoming and warm and Vienna is of course a beautiful city, but the Austrian authorities claimed that they could not accept more refugees in Austria. So I decided to come to the UK. I expected it to be even better; like heaven – clean streets and the people will all be so nice but I was quite shocked."
Arriving as an asylum seeker, Mahmoud waited six months before he was granted refugee status and the right to remain in the UK, but not being able to speak the language made life incredibly tough and left him feeling scared and isolated. Mahmoud explains, "I asked for an interpreter at my screening interview, because I can't speak good English, but they wouldn't provide one for me at first. They put me in a cold room and every so often someone would come in and say 'we're going to deport you back to Hungary or Syria.'"
Asylum seekers are not eligible for formal English language courses but, desperate to learn English, Mahmoud found a course run by volunteers at a church in Manchester, travelling two hours to attend. However, as he explains, "because these were informal classes, they would often stop after a short period of time because of lack of support." Undeterred, Mahmoud, has tried to learn online – watching YouTube videos – but even this is difficult because of the cost of data.
Frustratingly, things aren't any easier now that Mahmoud has refugee status. "Nothing is different. Even when the job centre referred me to different colleges it didn't work out because there weren't enough places."
When he tried to enrol at Salford College on an open day he was told that best case scenario he would be able to start on a course in September, but even then there might not be spaces.
Unable to access the support he needs to learn the language has left Mahmoud feeling depressed and frustrated. Worse still, it has meant that he is now facing homelessness because the hostels he has tried to find board at require a certain level of English before they will give a room to someone, and those that don't have long waiting lists.
Even getting around the city can prove problematic. In Syria, people will often give their unused bus tickets to another passenger for them to use instead. When Mahmoud tried to do the same here, he ran in difficulty. He explains, "Not being able to speak the language is like having a disability. Sometimes people misunderstand you and think you are expressing yourself negatively. One time I was getting off the bus because I decided to walk so I tried to give the person getting on the bus my ticket – but that person thought I was begging for money because I was putting my hands in my pocket and reacted really badly."
Despite all of this, Mahmoud has started volunteering at the Syrian grassroots community organisation,Rethink Rebuild, in an effort to improve his English and get his life on track, but he says, it is learning English that would truly transform his life.
Mahmoud says, "I feel like I'm living like a ghost because I cannot speak the language; it's such a dream to be able to talk to people."
"Being able to get onto a course would be a new life for me – it would mean I was reborn again; able to stand on up on my own two feet and do things for myself. I want to understand this new society I live in and start a new business."
With special thanks to Rethink, Rebuild who shared Mahmoud's story with us.
The article was originally published here.
Mahmoud's story, a 10 year old refugee's journey from Syria to Sweden
Shot at, locked up, excluded from school, and now starting a new life as a normal kid.
Migration and refugees have been very big news in 2015, and today's newspapers across Europe are covered in stories discussing the international movement of desperate people who are fleeing suffering.
Personally, I think that the people of Europe do want their leaders to act with compassion, and for human dignity to be something that every person gets to experience. But there are various reasons why many everyday people in European countries are feeling uncertain about how best to respond to migrants coming to their continent. A common question is whether asylum seekers can integrate into their new communities and contribute to local life. And it's not a horrible question to ask; fleeing a country is tough, and starting again in a new country is tough. Can it result in happy endings for both the refugees and their new communities?
Rather than listening to me philosophising about it, click on the video at the top of this page to meet Mahmoud, a 9 year old Syrian boy whose family fled a war zone and ended up in Egypt. Mahmoud is beaten up by the local kids for being Syrian, he's unable to gain a place in a school, and his father can't see a way for his son to have a future. Mahmoud told his dad that he wanted to board a boat and go to Italy, where he'd have a chance to go to school. But it didn't work out. His boat was shot at shortly after it left the shore, and soon he was back in Egypt.
A safe, normal life seemed like an impossible dream, then Sweden stepped up and offered Mahmoud and his family asylum. Sweden is currently one of Europe's most generous nations in terms of opening its doors to refugees, and promised Mahmoud's family that it would help them to start afresh.
One year later, a camera crew tracked the family down in Sweden, and checked in to see how they were doing. Take a minute to watch the video below!
It's a great story. Mahmoud is in school, doing normal kid stuff with friends, and he's dreaming of being a doctor. As his new school teacher says, he's really just like any other kid in the classroom. Mahmoud's father has been impressed by how quickly his son has embraced his new home, observing that it's as though he's been in Sweden all his life. It may sometimes look like that, but Mahmoud still breaks into tears when he thinks about what he's been through in his ten short years.
For me, these videos give me heart. They remind me that asylum seekers are normal people in horrible situations, and that nobody is more motivated than them to put their lives back together and achieve things in life. Communities that open their arms to people in need do need to offer support in order to smooth the transition, but in return these communities receive talent and enthusiasm. But perhaps most importantly, communities who embrace asylum seekers receive the satisfaction of changing lives and being a local town that is a global citizen.
The article was originally published here.
Alan Gratz > Quotes
Alan Gratz quotes Showing 1-30 of 56
"You can live as a ghost, waiting for death to come, or you can dance."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"If I had known what the next six years of my life were going to be like, I would have eaten more. I wouldn't have complained about brushing my teeth, or taking a bath, or going to bed at eight o'clock every night. I would have played more. Laughed more. I would have hugged my parents and told them I loved them. But I was ten years old, and I had no idea of the nightmare that was to come. None of us did."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"All my life, I kept waiting for things to get better. For the bright promise of mañana. But a funny thing happened while I was waiting for the world to change, Chabele: It didn't. Because I didn't change it."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Your parents, Oskar and Mina. They are dead and gone now, Yanek, and we would grieve them if we could. But we have only one purpose now: survive. Survive at all costs, Yanek. We cannot let these monsters tear us from the pages of the world."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"I shook with helplessness and rage, but also with fear. This was what fighting back earned you. More abuse. More death. Half a dozen Jews would be murdered today because one man refused to die without a fight. To fight back was to die quickly and to take others with you.
This was why prisoners went meekly to their deaths. I had been so resolved to fight back, but I knew then that I wouldn't. To suffer quietly hurt only you. To suffer loudly, violently, angrily–to fight back–was to bring hurt and pain and death to others."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"Life is but a river. It has no beginning, no middle, no end. All we are, all we are worth, is what we do while we float upon it — how we treat our fellow man."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"It was all a big joke. I could see that now. There was no rhyme or reason to whether we lived or died. One day it might be the man next to you at roll call who is torn apart by dogs. The next day it might be you who is shot through the head. You could play the game perfectly and still lose, so why bother playing at all?"
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"Head down, hoodie up, eyes on the ground. Be unimportant. Blend in.
Disappear.
That was how you avoided the bullies."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"And that was the real truth of it, wasn't it? Whether you were visible or invisible, it was all about how other people reacted to you. Good and bad things happened either way. If you were invisible, bad people couldn't hurt you, that was true. But the good people couldn't help you, either. If you stayed invisible here, did everything you were supposed to and never made waves, you would disappear from the eyes and minds of all the good people out there who could help you get your life back. It was better to be visible. To stand up. To stand out."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"The ceremony was fast so we wouldn't be caught. When it was over, the men all whispered 'Mazel tov' and climbed back onto their shelves. I went up to the boy and pressed the wooden horse into his hands, the only present I could give him. The boy looked at me with big, round eyes. Had I ever been so young?
'We are alive,' I told him. 'We are alive, and that is all that matters. We cannot let them tear us from the pages of the world.'
I said it as much for me as for him. I said it in memory of Uncle Moshe, and my mother and father, and my aunts and other uncles and cousins. The Nazis had put me in a gas chamber. I had thought I was dead, but I was alive. I was a new man that day, just like the bar mitzvah boy. I was a new man, and I was going to survive."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"But as she watched Lito and Papi lift up Ivan's body, the empty place inside got bigger and bigger, until she was more empty than full."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"I had survived the work gangs in the ghetto. Baked bread under cover of night. Hidden in a pigeon coop. Had a midnight bar mitzvah in the basement of an abandoned building. I had watched my parents be taken away to their deaths, had avoided Amon Goeth and his dogs, had survived the salt mines of Wieliczka and the sick games of Trzebinia. I had done so much to live, and now, here, the Nazis were going to take all that away with their furnace!
I started to cry, the first tears I had shed since Moshe died. Why had I worked so hard to survive if it was always going to end like this? If I had known, I wouldn't have bothered. I would have let them kill me back in the ghetto. It would have been easier that way. All that I had done was for nothing."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"And you wanted to escape,' a man near me whispered to another man. 'You wanted to run off into the woods and fight. But do you see? Do you see what the rest of them think about us? These people would sell you back to the Nazis for a sack of potatoes and then toast you at their dinner table."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"It was easy to see the worst of humanity, when all I saw was brutality and selfishness, and these people showed me that there was still good in the world. Even if I rarely saw it."
― Alan Gratz
"I had managed to scare even the monsters, and when you can scare monsters, you can be sure you've become one yourself."
― Alan Gratz, Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II
"They only see us when we do something they don't want us to do, Mahmoud realized. The thought hit him like a lightning bolt. When they stayed where they were supposed to be – in the ruins of Aleppo or behind the fences of a refugee camp – people could forget about them. But when refugees did something they didn't want them to do – when they tried to cross the border into their country, or slept on the front stoops of their shops, or jumped in front of their cars, or prayed on the decks of their ferries – that's when people couldn't ignore them any longer.
Mahmoud's first instinct was to disappear below decks. To be invisible. Being invisible in Syria had kept him alive. But now Mahmoud began to wonder if being invisible in Europe might be the death of him and his family. If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Josef followed the small group of kids through the raised doorway onto the bridge of the St. Louis. The bridge was a narrow, curving room that stretched from one side of the ship to the other. Bright sunlight streamed in through two dozen windows, offering a panoramic view of the vast blue-green Atlantic and wispy white clouds. Throughout the wood-decked room were metal benches with maps and rulers on them, and the walls were dotted with mysterious gauges and meters made of shining brass."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Good books shouldn't be hidden away. They should be read by as many people as many times as possible."
― Alan Gratz, Ban This Book: A Novel
"That's what libraries were for: to make sure that everybody had the same access to the same books everyone else did."
― Alan Gratz, Ban This Book: A Novel
"Michael, it's terrible to say so, but sometimes you have to weigh the cost of one man's life against the value of an entire operation."
― Alan Gratz, Projekt 1065: A Novel of World War II
"If I had known what the next six years of my life were going to be like, I would have eaten more. I wouldn't have complained about brushing my teeth, or taking a bath, or going to bed at eight o'clock every night. I would have played more. Laughed more. I would have hugged my parents and told them I loved them."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"we'd stood up to Hitler and the Nazis with the rest of the Allies."
― Alan Gratz, Projekt 1065
"How do you explain to someone else why a thing matters to you if it doesn't matter to them? How can you put into words how a book slips inside of you and becomes a part of you so much that your life feels empty without it?"
― Alan Gratz, Ban This Book: A Novel
"None of the boys were studying for the math test we had today, because none of them cared."
― Alan Gratz, Projekt 1065
"Mr. Pilkey smiled. "Well, I wish they were on the shelves, where everybody could read them," he said. "I think it's important that libraries be a place where you can find all kinds of books. Good ones, bad ones, funny ones, serious ones. Every person should be free to read whatever they want, whenever they want, and not have to explain to anyone else why we like it, or why we think it's valuable. I hope you all get a chance to read my books someday."
― Alan Gratz, Ban This Book: A Novel
"It was easy to think the worst of humanity when all I saw was brutality and selfishness, and these people showed me there was still good in the world, even if I rarely saw it."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"What were they thinking, those little German children? Did they see animals when they looked at us, or people? I wasn't so sure myself anymore."
― Alan Gratz, Prisoner B-3087
"A girl from the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the girls' version of the Hitler Youth, came and collected him."
― Alan Gratz, Projekt 1065
"savaged him,"
― Alan Gratz, Projekt 1065
The article was originally published here.
Refugee Quotes
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Refugee by Alan Gratz
26,469 ratings, 4.50 average rating, 5,036 reviews
Refugee Quotes Showing 1-12 of 12
"You can live as a ghost, waiting for death to come, or you can dance."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"All my life, I kept waiting for things to get better. For the bright promise of mañana. But a funny thing happened while I was waiting for the world to change, Chabele: It didn't. Because I didn't change it."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Head down, hoodie up, eyes on the ground. Be unimportant. Blend in.
Disappear.
That was how you avoided the bullies."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"And that was the real truth of it, wasn't it? Whether you were visible or invisible, it was all about how other people reacted to you. Good and bad things happened either way. If you were invisible, bad people couldn't hurt you, that was true. But the good people couldn't help you, either. If you stayed invisible here, did everything you were supposed to and never made waves, you would disappear from the eyes and minds of all the good people out there who could help you get your life back. It was better to be visible. To stand up. To stand out."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"But as she watched Lito and Papi lift up Ivan's body, the empty place inside got bigger and bigger, until she was more empty than full."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"They only see us when we do something they don't want us to do, Mahmoud realized. The thought hit him like a lightning bolt. When they stayed where they were supposed to be – in the ruins of Aleppo or behind the fences of a refugee camp – people could forget about them. But when refugees did something they didn't want them to do – when they tried to cross the border into their country, or slept on the front stoops of their shops, or jumped in front of their cars, or prayed on the decks of their ferries – that's when people couldn't ignore them any longer.
Mahmoud's first instinct was to disappear below decks. To be invisible. Being invisible in Syria had kept him alive. But now Mahmoud began to wonder if being invisible in Europe might be the death of him and his family. If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Josef followed the small group of kids through the raised doorway onto the bridge of the St. Louis. The bridge was a narrow, curving room that stretched from one side of the ship to the other. Bright sunlight streamed in through two dozen windows, offering a panoramic view of the vast blue-green Atlantic and wispy white clouds. Throughout the wood-decked room were metal benches with maps and rulers on them, and the walls were dotted with mysterious gauges and meters made of shining brass."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Little Mariano was at home, getting fat"
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Fight against the impossible and win,"
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
"Whether you were visible or invisible, it was all about how other people reacted to you. Good and bad things happened either way. If you were invisible, the bad people couldn't hurt you, that was true. But the good people couldn't help you, either. If you stayed invisible here, did everything you were supposed to and never made waves, you would disappear from the eyes and minds of all the good people out there who could help you get your life back. It was better to be visible. To stand up. To stand out."
― Alan Gratz, Refugee
The article was originally published here.
Refugee (Alan Gratz) Quotes
Gratz, Alan
This Study Guide consists of approximately 70 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Refugee.
| This section contains 1,630 words (approx. 5 pages at 400 words per page) |
I should do something,' he whispered. But he knew better.
— Mahmoud (Mahmoud's Perspective)
Importance: This quote symbolizes the challenges each individual feels in confronting violence against others. Mahmoud thinks this to himself when he and his brother see the neighborhood bullies. He feels the anguish of watching another kid get beat up over the bread he carries, and debates to himself whether he should help him. But in his past, when he had confronted bullies, he had been beaten up badly. He learns to just try to be invisible to survive. Later as a refugee, Mahmoud realizes that he needs to be visible, not invisible for people to care. He realizes that the other people around him also feeling torn about helping another results in generally ignoring the refugee crisis, rather than helping. In order to be visible, he leads the march out of Hungary into Austria, which eventually takes them into Germany.
The…
— Josef (Josef's Perspective)
The article was originally published here.
Analyzing Quotes from the Novel Refugee by Alan Gratz
This common core aligned series of lessons includes seven quotes from the text, "Refugee", for students to analyze, as well as a blank form for teacher or student-selected quotes. Students will write both formal and informal response to literature pieces about the important quotes from the text. The more formal piece of writing focuses on identifying a conflict. I've also included a flowchart that helps students to identify what type of conflict is revealed in the quote that they have identified as significant. This practice with examining and identifying quotes is intended to help the students improve their selection of and use of quotes in their writing.
The article was originally published here.
Book Review: Refugee
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Alan Gratz is incredible at telling a historical story in a way that forces you to care about the characters, with a storyline that never drags. Refugee is the story of three teenagers a different times. Josef lives in Germany in 1939, Isabel lives in Cuba in 1994, and Mahmoud lives in Syria in 2015.
Josef's father is sent to a concentration camp and is released if his family leaves Germany. Josef and his family get on a ship and he notices how his father has changed. As they get closer to Cuba, there are rumors that they may not be let into the country. Where will they go? What will happen to them?
Isabel's father is being targetted by the police. Isabel teams up with a neighbor and her family to take a small boat to Miami. If they get caught before they hit the beach, they will be sent back to Cuba.
Mahmoud's family is apartment is destroyed by a mortar strike. He and his family leave Syria to get to Turkey and then Greece. Mahmoud has learned that you survived in Syria by not being noticed, but that may be the death of them as refugees.
Although these stories take place at different times, they have common threads. And I'm struck by how Gratz weaves these stories together and shows how easily everyone's tables can turn.
There was one thing that annoyed me. Each character has a different religion, and instead of having the Muslim character talk about Allah, the Jewish charcter talk about G-d, and the Christian character talk about God, he has them all talk about God. A part of me realizes that he is trying to show that all these characters are very similar, but I worry that he's not being thoughtful of these character's identity.
Overall, I loved this book! It is a fast paced story that tries to humanize a crisis that is hard for our students to wrap their mind around. In the author's note, he makes a point to tell readers what they can do.
Quotes:
"What if her lifewasa song? No, not a song. A life was a symphony, with different movements and complicated musical forms. A song was something shorter. A smaller piece of life. This journey was a song," (p. 155)
"You can live life as a ghost, waiting for death to come, or you candance." (p. 239)
"It was better to be visible. To stand up. To stand out." (p. 282)
*I recieved this ARC from the publisher, I recieved no monetary compensation for this review. Quotes may change in the final publication.
The article was originally published here.
Transcript
Quotes
Alan Gratz has written multiple other works some of which are less serious works of fiction (like his league of seven series) and others that work as more serious works of fiction or historical fiction (like Projekt 1065). Grantz has also published multiple works of short fiction
Jack and Thale did a presentation
Jack and Thale googled a presentation
Articles
What are some other perspectives that the author is not bringing into the story?
5 Surprising Facts About The Refugee Crisis
Refugee is a story about 3 different refugees from 3 different periods in time. Josef is a boy in the 1930s who trys to escape Nazi Germany. Isabel is Cuban girl in 1994 who is trying to escape to America from Cuba. Mahmoud is a boy from Syria in 2015 who is leaving for Europe with his family.
A Refugee Caravan is Hoping for Asylum in the U.S. How Are These Cases Decided?
Gratz with this book is trying to bring light to the long time issue of the refugee crisis. this issue is not one that has just come up in recent years but has been around for a very long time and Gratz does a very good job of illustrating some of the many difficulties these refugees face
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/The_End
here
Although Gatz in his novel focuses on the view of the refugee, gives no mention to the views of the government that the people were fleeing from, and the government of the countries they are fleeing too. While some of these points of view may be unpopular, I still believe that they would be interesting.
Thank you for your time.
What are some contemporary issues that the author is highlighting and making commentary on? What is the commentary?
Analysis of book
Essential Questions
There are many different sources of commentary on this topic. social media being the largest current example, another example is Times magazine. Both of the sources give examples of multiple different perspectives as well from interviews and articles to the thoughts of individuals.
What are other sources of commentary in contemporary society on this same topic and what are the different perspectives that are being presented?
Refugee
"Officer Pardon had only meant to mimic what everyone asked him all the time, but the question made Josef sag. It felt like they were never getting off this ship." (202, Gratz)
"She plucked it up and held it to her chest, the only part of Ivan she had left." (227, Gratz)
http://time.com/5076003/climate-change-migration-trump/
The article was originally published here.
Refugee Research Assessment
How accurately do you think Alan Gratz represents the experiences of the refugee characters in his novel, Refugee. Use multiple examples from both the novel and the non-fiction articles to support your ideas.
How Writing Comics Is Different From Writng Novels
Source: https://forupon.com/2020/01/12/refugee-connections-between-characters-in-refugee/
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