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Children's Fiction Emigration & Immigration

Seeking Refuge

by (author) Irene N. Watts

illustrated by Kathryn E. Shoemaker

Publisher
Tradewind Books
Initial publish date
Mar 2017
Category
Emigration & Immigration, Europe, Holocaust
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781926890029
    Publish Date
    Mar 2017
    List Price
    $18.95

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Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 9 to 12
  • Grade: 4 to 7
  • Reading age: 9 to 12

Description

In this follow-up to the successful Goodbye Marianne, Irene Watts explores what it is like for a young refugee girl to flee Nazi-occupied Austria alone. The poignant story is relatable to the terrible situation facing refugees in Europe and around the world today.

About the authors

In 1968 Irene N. Watts came to Canada from Britain, where she had arrived thirty years earlier from Germany, via Kindertransport. She is a writer/playwright, theatre director, and educator. Her plays for young audiences have been widely produced. Awards include a Vancouver Theatre Alliance Jessie Richardson for Goodbye Marianne (Scirocco Drama and Anchorage Press, U.S.); the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People; the Isaac Frischwasser Memorial Award (Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards, 1999 and 2001); the Government of Alberta Achievement Award for Outstanding Service to Drama. Irene is a Lifetime Member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. Recent publications include Tapestry of Hope: Holocaust Writing for Young People, compiled with Lillian Boraks-Nemetz (Tundra Books).

Irene N. Watts' profile page

Kathryn E. Shoemaker is the illustrator of many books for children, among them A Telling Time, My Animal Friends and Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends for Tradewind Books. She teaches children’s illustration at Langara College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Kathryn E. Shoemaker's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, The Western Canada Jewish Book Award
  • Short-listed, The Chocolate Lily Award
  • Winner, The Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature

Editorial Reviews

"Based on the author's novel Remember Me, this graphic novel captures the melancholy nature of the story—the isolation from, and longing for, the familiar comforts of home and family—through Shoemaker's limited-palette, charcoal-hued illustrations."

The Horn Book

"Black-and-white pencil sketches reflect a mood of loneliness and the bleakness of the time period...The glossary...does a great job of explaining terms at an age-appropriate level without shying away from harsh truths."

School Library Journal

"Both Watts and Shoemaker have created a story that really manages to convey the fear, the tension, the unease of a refugee arriving in a country where she is not really welcomed by everyone, and even looked down on by some...Hopefully, this is a book that will get young readers thinking."

The Children's War Blog

★ "Author and illustrator show their collaborative finesse in a wonderfully rendered marriage between text and art...A book that invites close reading, this will spark interest in the plight of all refugees."

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Though Holocaust stories are by definition horrifying, this one offers some hope."

Publishers Weekly

"Seeking Refuge contains much about hope and the resilience of the spirit in times of adversity. While the book is recommended for ages nine and older, adults, too, will find it engrossing."

Jewish Chronicle, London

"This beautifully rendered graphic novel...would make a gentle, highly visual addition to Holocaust curriculum, or it could be an excellent tool for introducing xenophobia and refugee crisis to upper-elementary and middle-grade readers."

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