Two teenagers on opposite sides of the globe flee everything they know. In a world turned upside down by tragedy, they are refugees.

Sixteen-year-old Dawn runs away from her unhappy foster home in California and travels to New York City. Johar, an Afghani teenager, sees his world crumble before him. He flees his war-ravaged village and the Taliban, and makes a dangerous trek to a refugee camp in Pakistan. Thanks to his knowledge of English, Johar finds a job at the camp assisting Louise, the Red Cross doctor—and Dawn’s foster mother. Through e-mails and phone calls, Dawn and Johar begin to share and protect each other’s secrets, fears, and dreams, and a remarkable bond forms that gives each of them hope and the courage to find a path home. ( )

In Catherine Stine’s realistic fictional novel Refugees, two teenagers that live on opposite sides of the world have their lives flipped upside down by tragedy following the September 11, 2001 terrorists’ attacks. Dawn, a sixteen year old girl, runs away from her foster home in California to go live in New York with her best friend Jude. Meanwhile, a fifteen year old boy named Johar living in Afghanistan flees to a refugee camp in Pakistan, with hopes of escaping the Taliban and war going on back home. Their paths cross when Johar finds a job working at the Red Cross assisting Dawn’s foster mother, Louise. By phone calls and emails, Johar and Dawn begin to build an unbreakable bond that will bring each other the hope and strength they need to overcome any obstacles that get in their way of finding home. The book Refugees is based around the idea of belonging, unusual friendships and hardships. At home, Johar’s brother gets taken away and he is forced to flee in search of where he belongs. Dawn is sick of being treated as a toy that people can test out and bring back to the store. She’s hurt that her mother would just give her up and has her heart set on finding her again. For now, to get away from all the pain Dawn goes to pursue her music career along side her friend Jude’s acting one. Only on rare occasions do people find and form special bonds with one another across the globe, but this unbelievable relationship between Johar and Dawn could get the two of them through anything. Catherine Stine wants readers to focus on the message of following your dreams; never giving up hope and that sometimes all you need to get through something difficult is a friend standing by the whole way. This book is a fantastic example of American diversity and the way Stine writes it makes what is normally a boring subject, exciting. It’s interesting how someone on one side of the world can have one problem, and another person on the other side can be dealing with almost the same thing. People nowadays don’t think very much about the big picture and only about what is happening to them at that moment. Stine’s novel opened my eyes about how the world really isn’t that big of a place after all. We’re all people that all have struggles and I think if more countries across the world formed alliances with each other similar to the one Dawn had with Johar, the world would be a much better place. -M.C.

Dawn runs away from her foster parents in San Francisco bound for New York City just before the September 11th terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, her Mom is in Afghanistan working in the refugee camps with people fleeing the Taliban. After September 11th, Dawn calls her mother and ends up befriending an Afghani teen named Johar who lives in the camp and is helping her mother. ( )