New Books: The Refugee Experience
Books to Enhance the Social Studies Curriculum
Check out what's new in the SVS Library!
Note: All descriptions are from the book publishers.
The New Odyssey: The Story of the Twenty-first Century Refugee Crisis
An award-winning Guardian journalist and migration correspondent presents a searing account of the international refugee crisis to illuminate the realities of today's mass-scale forced migrations, describing the ongoing safety challenges imposed on refugees in 17 countries.
The Journey
Picture Book
With haunting echoes of the current refugee crisis this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war.
A Hope More Powerful than the Sea: One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival
Emotionally riveting and eye-opening, A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea is the incredible story of a young woman, an international crisis, and the triumph of the human spirit.
Somos Como Las Nubes / We Are Like the Clouds
This powerful book by award-winning Salvadoran poet Jorge Argueta describes the terrible process that leads young people to undertake the extreme hardships and risks involved in the journey to what they hope will be a new life of safety and opportunity. A refugee from El Salvador’s war in the eighties, Argueta was born to explain the tragic choice confronting young Central Americans today who are saying goodbye to everything they know because they fear for their lives. This book brings home their situation and will help young people who are living in safety to understand those who are not.
Adrift at Sea: A Vietnamese Boy's Story of Survival
By: Marsha Forchuk Syrypuch
Picture Book
Tuan and his family survive bullets, a broken motor, and a leaking boat in the long days they spend at sea after fleeing Vietnam. This is the first picture book to describe the flight of Vietnam’s “Boat People” refugees. Illustrated with sweeping oil paintings and complete with an expansive historical and biographical section with photographs, this non-fiction picture book is all the more important as the world responds to a new generation of refugees risking all on the open water for the chance at safety and a new life.
This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration
American attitudes toward immigrants are paradoxical. On the one hand, we see our country as a haven for the poor and oppressed; anyone, no matter his or her background, can find freedom here and achieve the “American Dream.” On the other hand, depending on prevailing economic conditions, fluctuating feelings about race and ethnicity, and fear of foreign political and labor agitation, we set boundaries and restrictions on who may come to this country and whether they may stay as citizens. This book explores the way government policy and popular responses to immigrant groups evolved throughout U.S. history, particularly between 1800 and 1965.