Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Winner!

Congratulations to Alan Gratz and Scholastic Publishing for Refugee being named the 2017 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Winner!

For a full list of winners, go to the Cybils Website!

"Refugee by Alan Gratz is an important story for our times. The writing is tension-filled and although the young characters are fictional, the facts surrounding their terror are real. Set in different decades, each of the three stories detail the harrowing journey of a family as they attempt to escape an otherwise dangerous situation. Author Alan Gratz is artful in the way the separate plots interconnect and overlap. Circumstances are not glossed over or made any easier in fiction than they are for actual refugees of the past and present.

 The story pointedly shows that the refugee crisis has been with us longer than most kids realize. It’s also a challenging book, but with short chapters and cliffhanger endings it’s one they will really want to read. This Cybils Middle-Grade Fiction winner is a moving experience. It won’t be a book you’ll soon forget."

For those of you out there who feel powerless today, you shouldn't. I firmly believe that if every single person made it a priority just to be kind and helpful to everyone else, without fail, the world would be a better place.

Start small. Be kind to others in your corner of the world. It makes a difference.