Stormy Seas
Illustrated by Eleanor Shakespeare
Travel from pre-World War 11 Europe to present-day North Africa, and experience the harrowing and real journeys of five young people who fled their homes, risking their lives on the open sea to seek refuge elsewhere.
In vivid and riveting detail, each story reveals how these young people were forced to leave behind everything familiar in search of peace and security: Ruth and her family board the St. Louis to escape Nazism; Phu sets out alone from war-torn Vietnam; José tries to reach the United States from Cuba; Najeeba flees Afghanistan and the Taliban; and after losing his family, Mohamed abandons his village on the Ivory Coast in search of a new life. Stormy Seas combines a vivid and contemporary collage-based design with dramatic storytelling to produce a book that makes for riveting reading as well as a source of timely information. These remarkable accounts will give readers a keen appreciation of the devastating effects of war and poverty on youth like themselves, and how with enormous courage and remarkable resilience, each overcame horrific obstacles and found hope in what life can be.
Awards and Praise
• Rebecca Caudill Award Nominee, 2021
• White Ravens Collection, International Youth Library, Munich
• Silver Birch, Honour Book
• Best Books for Kids & Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre
• Booklist Editors' Choice List
• Booklist Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction for Older and Middle Readers
• Books of the Year, Quill & Quire
• Chicago Public Library Best Books
• Top Ten Best Bet, Ontario Library Association
• Notable Books for a Global Society
• VOYA Nonfiction Honour List
• Skipping Stones Honor Award
• EUREKA! Nonfiction Children’s Book Awards, California Reading Ass.
• Nerdies Best Long Form Nonfiction Award
• Independent Publisher Book Award
• Cybils Bloggers’ Literary Awards nomination
• Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List
• Bangkok Book Awards finalist
• Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award finalist
• Maine Student Book Award finalist
• Rocky Mountain Book Award nomination
“Leatherdale deftly retells the stories in spare but honest language.”
—School Library Journal, *starred review
“Offers an affecting perspective on the plight of refugees and emphasizes that this human-rights crisis is an ongoing, urgent issue.”
—Booklist, *starred review
“Serve as powerful mirrors to current humanitarian crises.”
—Publishers Weekly, *starred review
Editions:
North America: Annick Press, 2017
Korea: Prooni Books, 2019
Italy: Editrice Il Castoro, 2019
Germany: Orland Verlag, 2021
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