When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson 256 pages Heartbreak and hope exist together in this remarkable graphic novel about growing up in a refugee camp, as told by a Somali refugee to the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl. Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day. Heartbreak, hope, and gentle humor exist together in this graphic novel about a childhood spent waiting, and a young man who is able to create a sense of family and home in the most difficult of settings. It's an intimate, important, unforgettable look at the day-to-day life of a refugee, as told to New York Times Bestselling author/artist Victoria Jamieson by Omar Mohamed, the Somali man who lived the story. This is a Mark Twain nomineed book. I feel like the story could have been told so much better with a chapter book instead of a Graphic Novel. Some stories are told well with graphic novels, but this one was very long and seemed to lag in the middle with the same things happening over and over. The story was a good story of a refugee camp and will give middle school readers an idea of what life was like when you live in a refugee camp.