By Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed
The true story of a boy growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp, raising his little brother, and waiting years for a life that might begin somewhere else.
This is Omar Mohamed's own childhood, drawn by Victoria Jamieson. Omar and his younger brother Hassan fled Somalia as very small boys and grew up in Dadaab, a vast refugee camp in Kenya, cared for by a neighbor and waiting, always waiting, for word about resettlement or about the mother they were separated from. Hassan doesn't speak, and Omar looks after him with a fierce, tired love. When Omar is offered a chance to go to school, he has to weigh his own future against being the one who's always there for his brother. It's daily life in the camp, hunger and heat and boredom and small joys, told with astonishing warmth.
A child can read all about refugees and feel nothing, or they can spend a few hours being Omar, and never forget it. That's what this book does. Because it's Omar's true story, there's no villain and no tidy rescue, just a boy being patient and brave through years of not-knowing, and loving his brother through all of it. The graphic-novel format carries a reluctant reader through subject matter they'd never pick up as a wall of text, and the ending, without giving it away, is the kind that makes a child sit quietly for a minute. It's the biggest-hearted book on this shelf.