Home Is Beyond the Mountains

April 1, 2010
Gr 6-10-When nine-year-old Samira and her family leave their Persian village, fleeing war in 1918, it is the beginning of a five-year odyssey in which she crosses national borders, loses both parents, and creates new family connections before her return, thanks to a determined orphanage director, Susan Shedd. This moving and suspenseful survival story is based on historical events; the director of the Hamadan orphanage in the country now called Iran was the author's aunt. Lottridge focuses her third-person narrative on Samira, imagining details of her prewar daily life, the horrors of the Assyrians' flight, the worlds of refugee camps and orphanages, and the long journey home, and bringing them to life for readers 90 years removed. Escaping Turks and Kurds, Samira and her brother had walked to Hamadan; returning, they were joined by more than 300 other refugee children, traveling the 300 miles on foot in "families" of 12 children organized and led by the redoubtable Miss Shedd. Out of sad, nearly forgotten history comes this triumphant story."Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2010
Grades 7-10 After the Turks destroy her Assyrian village at the end of World War I, Samira, 9, flees with her family to the mountains, but her mother and baby sister die during the journey. After 28 days, she meets up with her older brother, Benjamin, in the Baqubah refugee camp near Baghdad, where slowly she builds relationships with others and cares for a small boy. After three years, the children are taken to an orphanage, and then, after more years of waiting, she makes it back to her village in a long, arduous trek. After all of this displacement, where is her home? Based on the experiences of the authors aunt, the story tells the horrific history of the Assyrian and Armenian refugees through indelible specifics: the detail of how the characters wash, what they eat, and the grueling flight from home and then back again to what they left behind. A map shows the characters routes, and a final note fills in more historical background. At the core of the story is Samiras personal struggle, always remembering or trying not to remember those who are gone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)