When Stars Are Scattered
Author: Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed
Illustrator: Victoria Jamieson & Iman Geddy
Publisher: Faber & Faber Limited (UK)
Print Length: 264 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction / Autobiography or Memoir, Graphic Novel & Comic Book
Area: Dadaab Refugee Camp, Kenya, East Africa
Topic: Somali, Lived Experience, Education, Camps, Hope, Refugee & Forced Migration, War, Children & Childhood, Resilience, Youth & Youthhood, Refugee Resettlement
Table of Contents
PART ONE. FOR ME, THE FIRST YEARS ARE LOST.
1. “My brother and I live here: in a refugee camp in Kenya, in Africa. The camp is called Dadaab.”
2. “Every day in a refugee camp is the same… except when it’s not. Sometimes your life can change in an instant, but you can never be sure if it’s a good change or a bad change.”
3. “Like every morning, I hear the call to morning prayers over the loudspeakers. It’s early, but today I was already awake.”
4. “Going to school in a refugee camp isn’t the easiest thing in the world. School here is… chaotic.”
5. “I’ve been at school for almost two months now. I’ve been getting less sleep at night, and… I don’t know why, maybe it’s the long walk to school… but these days I’m hungry. All. The. Time. I mean, you’re always hungry in a refugee camp… but these past few weeks have been particularly bad.”
6. “School is a good distraction from my worries.”
7. “I was so happy when school started up again.”
PART TWO: TWO YEARS LATER
8. “In a refugee camp, everything can change… and nothing can change. I’m still here, so that hasn’t changed.”
9. “I try to forget about America. I try to remember what Fatuma told me. That God has a plan for me, and I just need to be patient.”
10. “When the excitement of Eid is over, the boredom of everyday life comes flooding back. Needless to say, distractions of any sort are welcome in a refugee camp.”
11. “The day started like any other. Actually, I remember waking up grumpier than most days. Sleeping in the dirt will make you grumpy sometimes.”
12. “I got up early the next morning—the sound of people getting ready all around me woke me up.”
13. “You’re going to America!”
14. “As I started eight grade I eventually thought less… and less… about America.”
PART THREE: FOUR YEARS LATER
“… I started to feel hopeless in this endless sea of refugees. There were so many of us. Thousand of us. Hundreds of thousand.”
15. “I didn’t believe it was real… not for a long time. I had wasted months—years—of my life, waiting and hoping to be resettled to another country.”
16. “After all those interviews, after all those years of waiting… the United Nations delivers your fate in an envelope.”
17. “The next months were a blur of security screenings, medical examinations, and identification documents.”
No one chooses to become a refugee. I didn’t choose to leave Somalia when I was a little boy. I am choosing to leave Dadaab now.
Afterword
Author’s Note: Omar Mohamed
Author’s Note: Victoria Jamieson
Victoria Jamieson received her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as a children’s book designer before becoming a full-time illustrator. She has also worked as a portrait artist aboard a cruise ship, and has lived in Australia, Italy, and Canada. She now lives with her family in Pennsylvania.
Source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/246329/victoria-jamieson/
More from Victoria Jamieson in this library, click here.
Omar Mohamed is the co-creator of the National Book Award finalist When Stars Are Scattered, based on his childhood growing up in the Dadaab refugee camp, after his father was killed and he was separated from his mother in Somalia. He devoted everything to taking care of his younger brother, Hassan, and to pursuing his education. He now lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife and five children, and is the founder of Refugee Strong, a non-profit organization that empowers students living in refugee camps.
Source: https://www.amazon.com/When-Stars-Scattered-Victoria-Jamieson/dp/0525553908
More from Omar Mohamed in this library, click here.