Escape from Syria - Hardcover

Kullab, Samya

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770859829 ISBN 13: 9781770859821

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2017

Synopsis

A graphic story of intense current events.

From the pen of former Daily Star (Lebanon) reporter Samya Kullab comes a breathtaking and hard-hitting story of one family's struggle to survive in the face of war, displacement, poverty and relocation.

Escape from Syria is a fictionalized account that calls on real-life circumstances and true tales of refugee families to serve as a microcosm of the Syrian uprising and the war and refugee crisis that followed.

The story spans six years in the lives of Walid, his wife Dalia, and their two children, Amina and Youssef. Forced to flee from Syria, they become asylum-seekers in Lebanon, and finally resettled refugees in the West. It is a story that has been replayed thousands of times by other families.

When the family home in Aleppo is destroyed by a government-led bomb strike, Walid has no choice but to take his wife and children and flee their war-torn and much loved homeland. They struggle to survive in the wretched refugee camps of Lebanon, and when Youssef becomes fatally ill as a result of the poor hygienic conditions, his father is forced to take great personal risk to save his family.

Walid's daughter, the young Amina, a whip-smart grade-A student, tells the story. As she witnesses firsthand the harsh realities that her family must endure if they are to survive -- swindling smugglers, treacherous ocean crossings, and jihadist militias -- she is forced to grow up very quickly in order to help her parents and brother.

Kullab's narrative masterfully maps both the collapse and destruction of Syria, and the real-life tragedies faced by its citizens still today. The family's escape from their homeland makes for a harrowing tale, but with their safe arrival in the West it serves as a hopeful endnote to this ongoing worldwide crisis.

Beautiful illustrations by Jackie Roche -- whose work on the viral web-comic, Syria's Climate Conflict, was seen prominently in Symboliamag. com, Upworthy.com and Motherjones.com, among others -- bring Kullab's words to life in stunning imagery that captures both the horror of war and the dignity of human will.

About this title

About the Author

Samya Kullab is a journalist based in the Middle East covering security, politics and refugees. She has worked in Lebanon, Turkey, the West Bank and Gaza, and Iraq for a variety of international media outlets. She was a reporter with Lebanon's The Daily Star for three years.

Jackie Roche is a freelance cartoonist and illustrator whose work has been published outlets including Fusion, Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication, The Nib, and anthologies including Sweaty Palms and Colonial Comics: New England, 1750 - 1775 (vol. II). She lives in Chicago, IL.

Review

My heart is low and cracked after reading this graphic novel. It is important and beautiful. But it is heartbreaking and real. The story of this family, their journey from home to refugee to new home is almost too hard to read. Samya Kullab and Jackie Roche have done an unbelievable job crafting this piece of historical fiction. (I Read Graphic Novels 2019-05-08)

In this harrowing and timely tale of courage and determination, Amina narrates her family's odyssey after their home in Aleppo is destroyed. They must endure refugee camps, risk ocean crossings and escape the terror of jihadist militias in order to reach safety in Canada. (Meghan Howe Canadian Children's Book News 2018-09-01)

Escape from Syria gives a very personalized account of the Syrian crisis with a balanced approach and art that is deceivingly simple. The topic is timely and while the scenes may be specific, the themes of fear, families, home, and loss are universal. Perhaps as a credit to the author's journalism background, any sentimentality comes across as genuine and unforced. (John Mutford The Cybils 2018, Childrens' and Young Adult Blogge 2019-01-01)

The book describes with precision what is happening to refugees in the camps, bringing us to meet many different refugees with different points of view on the situation. What particularly impressed me was the author's courage in addressing a number of political topics, such as how the roots of the war lie in the time of Hafez al-Assad, who came to power in a military coup in 1970, and the repression suffered by the Syrian people under his reign and that of his son Bashar. It describes the suffering of citizens living under Daesh -- who went from the frying pan into the fire -- with great tenderness. I was left feeling nothing but a deep sympathy for the family of Walid. I felt like I was there with them; feeling their grief and their fear, as though I were one of them... The illustrations are evocative, and you can tell what a character is thinking by looking at their features. You will also 'feel' the beauty of Aleppo before the war, and the sorrow of what happened to it during the
conflict... The book was a worthy experience, and at the end the reader will be even more sympathetic with Syrian refugees, wherever they are. (Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi Oye! Times 2018-12-13)

Readers will experience the Syrian refugee crisis through Amina's eyes and will identify with her feelings of fear and unease, her ambition to succeed in school and her horror when her mother suggests she marry at 13. Roche's artwork is clean and crisp and uses varying background colour palettes throughout the book to convey specific emotions. Roche's skill at capturing emotion in facial expressions also creates a deep impact. Escape from Syria is an intense but timely read, and can be used by teachers and parents as a tool to discuss war, displacement, racism and tragedy. It is an authentic portrayal of the refugee experience and deeply relevant to Canada's role in helping displaced Syrians. (Scott Robins Canadian Children's Book News 2018-03-01)

(starred) A gripping portrait of an ongoing worldwide crisis. (The Canadian Children's Book Centre's Best Books f 2018-03-01)

Kullab based this graphic novel on her personal observations from reporting in Syria. She does not shy away from difficult issues... Facts about the Syrian situation are interwoven into the story to help readers understand the political and economic circumstances that led to the refugee crisis... Tells a story of survival and hope. (Margaret Grift Professionally Speaking 2018-06-01)

Winner, Children's Choice Award, 12-16 years old (School Library Association 2018-11-07)

Escape from Syria is both a very human drama and an informative account of the socio-poltical complexities of life in the region... Kullab effectively condenses involved subject matter into understandable summaries without compromising the integrity of her storytelling... Jackie Roche's art is accessible throughout with her expressive depiction of the cast playing a large role in the audience's empathetic connection with them. While her visual storytelling adopts a largely traditional use of layouts those moments of high drama are rendered all the more dramatic for their sudden use of unconventional panel arrangements. This is highly effective in communicating the trauma and panic of the opening explosion scene, for example, or a later sequence where a boat full of refugees capsizes... Mike Freiheit's often carefully subdued colouring choices also add to the book's tense atmosphere... This is an excellent starting point for a younger demographic in understanding both the underlying
reasons behind the news stories and the plight of those impacted. (Andy Oliver Broken Frontier 2019-03-20)

Written by a former reporter for the Lebanon Star and illustrated by Roche in stark, vivid panel sequences, this frank graphic novel opens in 2013 Aleppo as the neighborhood greengrocer greets studious Amina on her way home from school. Suddenly, everything is chaos as an explosion rips through the neighborhood. Though the political situation has been deteriorating, this event signals the need to Amina's father: "Dad said all was lost. We had to leave." In a camp in Lebanon, refugees from Syria are kept isolated. There's little work and little food. Amina's dreams of further education evaporate into a haze of debt and fear; a friend of hers is married at 13. When the family gets an offer to resettle in Canada, Amina's mother hesitates; in a heartbreaking sequence, a bus trip back to Syria shows her that "home" doesn't exist anymore, and she agrees to leave. Kullab's story focuses less on emigration and more on the process by which ordinary families become the faceless refugees of news
reports. When readers next hear news about Syria, they will likely remember Amina. (Publishers Weekly 2017-09-11)

About this edition

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1770859829
• ISBN 13: 9781770859821
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96
• Illustrator: Roche Jackie