Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Rama wakes with the call of her family's rooster, laughing, playing, and spending her days surrounded by the love of her family. When war comes to Syria, Rama's happy, peaceful life shrinks, food becomes scarce, and bombs fall ever closer, until her family must leave their home. They walk "to the end of the earth," climb aboard a little boat, and are battered by the roiling sea, saying prayers for those who didn't make it any further. Ruurs writes purely and warmly, with the text set in both English and Raheem's Arabic translation on each page, of a family who become refugees. She deftly conveys the happiness of peaceful childhood, then the confusion and the fears born of war and migration, and the relief and curiosity of arriving at a new home-and the uncertainty whether it will be forever. Artist Badr still lives in his birthplace of Latakia, Syria. Lacking resources, he began using the stones he collects from the sea to depict stories of his compatriots with love and compassion. Each illustration is masterful, with Badr's placement of stones as careful as brush strokes, creating figures positioned to tell the whole story without the benefit of facial expressions: dancing, cradling, working; burdened, in danger, at peace. A foreword describes how the book came to be. An astonishing book that allows the humanity of refugees to speak louder than politics and introduces readers to one of Syria's incredible artists. (Picture book. 4-8)

ALA Booklist (Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2016)

Quiet, intense nostalgia permeates the fictional Rama's recollection of her family's life in Syria before war forced them to flee and start over in another country. Her story is all too common. Ordinary lives are curtailed at first by political oppression f we're not allowed to sing our songs, / . . . are we truly free?" d then by violent warfare. Written in English and Arabic, the tight blank verse contains just enough detail for readers to imagine Rama's journey with tangible immediacy: "a river of strangers in search of a place / to be free, to love, and laugh . . . / A river of people in search of peace." Perhaps more than by the text, readers will be fascinated by the stone-collage illustrations created by Syrian artist Badr, who arranges expressive tableaux of people formed entirely of rocks and pebbles. On every spread, a round pebble hovers over the refugees, providing light, like the moon or sun, as well as hope. A unique offering that will open eyes and soften hearts.

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Syrian artist Badr used ordinary beach stones to compose the three-dimensional collage art depicting the harrowing journeys that many present-day Syrians undertake. Ruurs's free-verse text, in English and Arabic, chronicles one specific journey of fictional girl Rama, whose family must flee its war-torn village. A memorable look at what it means to leave one's home in search of "a bright new future." Websites.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Rama wakes with the call of her family's rooster, laughing, playing, and spending her days surrounded by the love of her family. When war comes to Syria, Rama's happy, peaceful life shrinks, food becomes scarce, and bombs fall ever closer, until her family must leave their home. They walk "to the end of the earth," climb aboard a little boat, and are battered by the roiling sea, saying prayers for those who didn't make it any further. Ruurs writes purely and warmly, with the text set in both English and Raheem's Arabic translation on each page, of a family who become refugees. She deftly conveys the happiness of peaceful childhood, then the confusion and the fears born of war and migration, and the relief and curiosity of arriving at a new home-and the uncertainty whether it will be forever. Artist Badr still lives in his birthplace of Latakia, Syria. Lacking resources, he began using the stones he collects from the sea to depict stories of his compatriots with love and compassion. Each illustration is masterful, with Badr's placement of stones as careful as brush strokes, creating figures positioned to tell the whole story without the benefit of facial expressions: dancing, cradling, working; burdened, in danger, at peace. A foreword describes how the book came to be. An astonishing book that allows the humanity of refugees to speak louder than politics and introduces readers to one of Syria's incredible artists. (Picture book. 4-8)