No Safe Place

Gr 9 Up—This novel moves fast and furiously as readers follow the plight of three teen orphans who are attempting to escape from their troubled homelands to England. Rosalia, a Roma girl; Cheslav, a Russian boy; and Abdul, an Iraqi boy are all fleeing the cruelties of their war-torn cultures. The exciting and moving story manages to pull in the threads of our global history in the making—bombings in Baghdad, sex trafficking, and the harsh lives of underage conscripted soldiers. Violence is a big part of the teens' short lives as a result of the injustices in the world around them; it includes beatings and deaths as a result of racism and sexism. The story line revolves around their experiences as they come together in Calais and make the crossing to England. Ellis deftly uses flashbacks to fill in the backstories of each character, reminding readers of how they can never really know where people are coming from emotionally. Her writing is highly accessible, and yet understated. Orphans of the world and victims of human trafficking need all the press they can get, and this book does a great job of introducing the topic and allowing young people to see beyond the headlines of "Another illegal accidentally dies in Chunnel."—Meredith Toumayan, The Governor's Academy, Byfield, MA