Review: The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I thought some of the writing was unclear. For example, on page 78, the only country referred to by name is Greece. Then, the first line of writing on the next page is "By 2016, Russia--the longtime ally of Assad--helps bomb the president's enemies." My first thought--whose president? Russia? Syria? Greece? America? Would kids know?

I know this is a nonfiction graphic novel, so there doesn't have to be a continuous storyline following a certain character, but I think that would have made a stronger work. All the "they had to" and "They rejected" and anonymous theys everywhere threw me off as a reader. I wanted to know exactly WHO. It sounded like a drunk guy at a bar creating his own defense and using "THEY said" and then no one believes him. I know Brown based this story on facts, and so I wanted names. I wanted a picture of the exact person he's talking about. The generalities of it bothered me. Instead of "the Aleppo pals," I wanted the names of the two men.

I may not think this book is an award winner, but I still think it deserves to be in every library and could easily be used in a social studies curriculum unit about immigration and/or refugees and/or war.
It's important and teens and adults need to know about all the statistics that are used in this book.
The numbers are huge. This will continue to be a problem forever--the world has to figure out what to do with dictators and the people they hurt. It will be interesting to see what the current generation of teenagers do with immigration and refugee policies in America over the next 20 years.

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