Key Stage: 3 (11+)
Rating: ★★★★★
Reviewer: Ms Harrison
Welcome to Nowhere, Elizabeth Laird (2017)
Plot: An account of the life of one family caught up in civil war and the resulting refugee crisis in Syria
narrated by twelve-year old Omar.
Positives: The protagonist and narrator Omar is really likable. The writing feels well researched, and the portrayal of warfare and its wide-reaching affects is sensitively managed. For a short book, it covers many other issues such as ableist attitudes toward disability through the character of Omar’s brother older Musa who has cerebral palsy – I loved his character especially.
Negatives: I felt sometimes that the story moved too quickly, often with months passing at a time which detracted a little from the atmosphere and the notion of time ticking slowly by.
If you like this, you might like: A Little Piece of Ground and The Garbage King by Elizabeth Laird, The Journey by Francesca Sanna (picture book), I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin and Azzi in Between by Sarah Garlan (graphic novel).