School Library Journal Starred Review (Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Gr 6 Up Influential and compelling color photographs illuminate the traumatic and devastating plight of refugee children, many from Iran or Afghanistan, living at the Katsikas refugee camp in Ioannina, Greece. Nayeri, a former refugee herself, creates a nonfiction work that will tug at heartstrings by putting a face to the harsh reality refugee children experience living in cramped shipping crates or trailer homes. Nayeri talks about the psychology and pain of waiting in limbo and how it takes the joy out of life. This stunning title appeals to readers' emotions and highlights the human toll of the refugee crisis. Nayeri's work could be used in sociology, history, or government classes, as well as literature units on persuasive writing. An afterword includes facts about refugees before COVID-19, changes made by the Geneva Convention, and a glossary. Important questions are raised about why actual numbers are low for refugees applying for asylum, and how citizens of the world can actually help by appealing to lawmakers. Perhaps this text will be the proverbial axe that breaks through frozen indifference and inspires some heartfelt action. VERDICT An important nonfiction tool in social emotional learning to draw attention to the harsh realities facing refugee children around the world. Laura Dooley-Taylor

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

When home is lost and a new one not yet found, children are sent to the Waiting Place.

Kirkus Reviews

Profiles of 10 different young people from various ethnic groups who are stuck waiting in a refugee camp in Greece after fleeing Afghanistan and Iran.The children, ages roughly 5 to 13, find ways to pass the time, some more successfully than others-playing with a bow fashioned from an old bedspring, reading, drawing, and engaging in pretend play. Older kids sometimes get to go to school outside the gated, guarded camp. The afterword by Nayeri, herself a former child refugee from Iran forced to wait for resettlement, stresses the importance of centering our common humanity, calling on governments and readers to act. The striking color photos and brief text sometimes tell different stories: Certainly, there is danger, boredom, and difficulty as emphasized in the text; there is also creativity, laughter, and resilience as shown in the photos. In contrast to more commonly seen narratives about dangerous flights from home or the challenges of settling in a new country, this work highlights the sometimes yearslong waits some refugees have in camps. Nayeri asks readers to extend kindness because refugees will be "ragged and tired and sad" upon arrival in the West; while true for some, this may reinforce discriminatory fears about mental health. The book's often universalist depiction of refugees is a weakness, but its strength is offering a peek into real refugees' lives.A window into life in a refugee camp-portrayed as a place to wait to be rescued. (glossary, author's note) (Nonfiction. 12-adult)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This picture book debut by Nayeri profiles 10 children at the Katsikas camp outside Ioannna, Greece. Opening with a personification of the Waiting Place as initially compassionate (“It is very sorry. It has been waiting for you”), and then increasingly sinister (“It wants more children and mothers and fathers. It doesn’t want you to visit the nearby lake... It craves your hours, weeks, years”), the text soon introduces some of the camp’s child residents alongside their friends and siblings. Five-year-old Matin, who’s from Afghanistan and previously stayed at “Moria, the most evil of all the waiting places,” makes a bow from an old bedspring and wants to be “the man who fills the planes with fuel. Without him, nobody can fly.” Bosch Miralpeix’s photographs provide an intimate glimpse of the camp and its quarters. Though the personification of the camp wavers in effectiveness, unclearly stating, for example, why it “wants you to be a child forever,” Nayari’s focus on children’s daily life grounds the volume, offering rich conversation starters about refugee experiences and mass displacement. An afterword, glossary, and author’s note offer helpful context. Ages 12–up. (May)