Katie Storer's Reviews > When Stars Are Scattered

5.0 stars and 3 tissues

I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrators were amazing. The accents were slightly hard to understand for the first few pages, but then became very clear. (After working at a university for 38 years, I became adept at understanding American English with strong foreign accents.)

This story is about a Somalian family with two young sons. The father was working in the fields one day while his oldest son was playing under a tree. Strangers approached the farmer and the small child saw his father gunned down. The boy started running for home and his mother was running toward him. She decided to keep going toward her husband and instructed her son to take care of his special needs little brother.

Many Somalians lives were changed that day. The boys ended up in a Kenyan refugee camp where they lived for many years. An older woman took the boys under her care and kept the children as safe as she could.

The great thing about middle grade stories like this is that adults can read the gentle text (geared for middle-graders) and learn what life was like for these refugees. To stay in Somalia meant death. Leaving their homeland was the only choice they had.

Whether you agree with refugees coming to your country or not, I beg you to read this memoir and learn how they all ended up homeless. Knowledge is power. This book tells some sad tales. But it also brings hope, found family, and gratitude for living in a stable society.

There are many memorable quotes that will stay with me forever. I predict that this may well be my favorite read of 2024.

Happy reading.

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