Escape from Syria

Childrens Choice Winner (ages 12 to 16 category) at the 2018 School Library Association Information Book of the Year Awards. \r\n\r\nIn league with Art Spiegelmans Maus and Marjane Satrapis Persepolis, this is a must-purchase for any teen or adult graphic novel collection. -School Library Journal (starred review). \r\n\r\nFrom the pen of former Daily Star (Lebanon) reporter Samya Kullab comes a breathtaking and hard-hitting story of one familys struggle to survive in the face of war, displacement, poverty and relocation. \r\n\r\nEscape from Syria is a fictionalized account that calls on reallife circumstances and true tales of refugee families to serve as a microcosm of the Syrian uprising and the war and refugee crisis that followed. \r\n\r\nThe story spans six years in the lives of Walid, his wife Dalia, and their two children, Amina and Youssef. Forced to flee from Syria, they become asylum-seekers in Lebanon, and finally resettled refugees in the West. It is a story that has been replayed thousands of times by\r\nother families. \r\n\r\nWhen the family home in Aleppo is destroyed by a government-led bomb strike, Walid has no choice but to take his wife and children and flee their war-torn and much loved homeland. They struggle to survive in the wretched refugee camps of Lebanon, and when Youssef becomes fatally ill as a result of the poor hygienic conditions, his father is forced to take great personal risk to save his family. \r\n\r\nWalids daughter, the young Amina, a whip-smart grade-A student, tells the story. As she witnesses firsthand the harsh realities that her family must endure if they are to survive - swindling smugglers, treacherous ocean crossings, and jihadist militias - she is forced to grow up very quickly in order to help her parents and brother. \r\n\r\nKullabs narrative masterfully maps both the collapse and destruction of Syria, and the real-life tragedies faced by its citizens still today. The familys escape from their homeland makes for a harrowing tale, but with their safe arrival in the West it serves as a hopeful endnote to this ongoing worldwide crisis. \r\n\r\nBeautiful illustrations by Jackie Roche - whose work on the viral web-comic, Syrias Climate Conflict, was seen prominently in Symboliamag.com, Upworthy.com and Motherjones.com, among others - bring Kullabs words to life in stunning imagery that captures both the horror of war and the dignity of human will.