Read Homes A Refugee Story Audible Audio Edition Abu Bakr al Rabeeah Winnie Yeung Audible Studios Books

Product details Audible Audiobook Listening Length Not yet known Program Type Audiobook Version Unabridged Publisher Audible Studios Scheduled Audible.com Release Date May 14, 2019 Language English, English ASIN B07QHG7N5T

Homes A Refugee Story Audible Audio Edition Abu Bakr al Rabeeah Winnie Yeung Audible Studios Books Reviews

• The autobiography of a young teenage Iraqi boy. It opens with a terrorist attack a month after Abu Bakr’s thirteenth birthday and closes with him beginning his new life as a refugee in Canada at the age of 15. In between, we experience the innocence and joys of childhood and the horrors of modern war. It’s a powerful book and one that needs to be read widely. I’ve ordered multiple copies to pass on to friends, family, teachers, and teenagers whom I know. I made the mistake of starting it in the evening and couldn’t put it down until I finished it the next morning.
• This story is impossible for most of us to imagine, but absolutely necessary to know.
• A refugee memoir narrated by Abu Bakr as told to his ESL teacher. Just as Christianity split into denominations and gave rise to the Spanish Inquisition so too Islam has radical Muslim Sects that vie for power victimizing one another, the radical sects committing acts of violence against rival Mosques and their members. Canadians will remember a move to introduce Sharia Law which was opposed by Muslims themselves. If you haven’t heard of the Suni/Shia divide in Iraq and Syria the majority Sunis are a less radical peace loving sect who have been victimized by revolutionary Shia who seized power under Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Assad in Syria. As the author describes it pumped up steroidal goons attack Suni mosques and initiate street violence.
  
  For the first 18 years of my life I knew nothing of locked doors or the need to carry passkeys. When I struck university residence I got locked out frequently at first. Even today I go hiking in American Parks without thought of identity papers. Imagine then an eleven-year-old knowing that failure to produce his identity papers could be a matter of life or death.
  
  A cast of characters is provided. Abu has 5 sisters and 2 brothers. The book concentrates on the conditions that forced the families to leave the Middle East. The period of adjustment to Edmonton including the language barrier and the climate would be another novel worth reading. The one surprise was that teachers take their dogs to school, I can see how it would be comforting, I'd just not thought it would happen.
• This is a book that had me lingering on the pages wondering how people survive the turmoil of a civil war. It's written with enough detail to feed the imagination. Much focus is on the strong bond that Bakr has with his family, and family is really the glue that strengthens each individual to go forth and live life despite the circumstances surrounding them daily. It was hard to put this book down, a sure sign that it's an interesting and valuable read. I would not have ordinarily chosen this book but came across it when the book I had wanted was not available and the library overdrive recommended Homes. I checked it out and I'm so glad I did.
• In the environment in which we live, it is easy to get caught up in emotional warfare. It is easy to group members of a certain race or religion into a neat package of stereotypes. This book really gave me a sense of what it is like to try to be human, during the chaos of civil war. In telling how difficult it was for a young boy to flee from Iraq to Syria (out of the frying pan into the fire), it also let me understand a little more of what the family of Congolese refugees, from a camp in Rwanda, went through-from their perspective, which was a lot different from what I experienced, as a volunteer welcoming them to their new home in the US. There are many opportunities in many communities to volunteer and help welcome refugees and help get them acclimated. This book is a reminder that they have been through so much.
• Incredibly powerful and very moving. I am glad I saw mention of this book on my library’s website as part of The Big Library Read. This book could be read by anyone aged 11+. I know I would have devoured it as a 4th or 5th grader. I am not saying this is a YA book - it is for everyone. I have been an adult for decades and found it readable as general adult-level reading material.
  As someone who has virtually no insight into living the life described by Abu Bakr (aside from a few similar books) I was shocked, saddened, horrified and finally, relieved, by what I read.
  This is a short book but well-organized and told from the heart. I also really enjoyed the last part of the book that described the family settling in Canada and Abu Bakr’s experiences at school and with his ESL teachers.
• In the past few years, many Syrian refugees have made their way to Canada, fleeing the violence in their homeland. The more we understand of their plight, the more helpful we can be.
  
  Abu Bakr al Rabeeah was enjoying an ordinary, happy Syrian childhood when the rise of terrorism sent the family into a tailspin. Two years later that spin landed them in a country whose ways were foreign to them.
  
  With the help of a high school English teacher, Abu Bakr recreates the increasingly threatening events that prompted the middle-class, professional family to flee a comfortable life for the uncertainty of emigration. Few Canadian-born readers will have lived with the constant threat of violence or imprisonment. Seeing the upheaval through the eyes of a young boy is an eye opener.
• This was only one person's tale (and his family) of life in Iraq and then Syria, finally Canada. But it was well-told and helped me step back from that terrible attitude of "That's just how they live over there (with the fighting, etc.)" and recognize the human beings simply desiring to live their daily lives. And how they continue doing that in the midst of the horrors of death and terror all around them. They are now highly esteemed in my eyes and mind.
  
  And the struggles even when they made their final move to safety in Canada. The culture change and language difference was so drastic that there were new difficulties to adjust to.
  
  I'm glad the author took the time to get this story and put it out for the world to read and understand.