A House Without Walls

Elizabeth Laird

Illustrated by Lucy Eldridge

Ages 9 to 11
23 January 2020
9781509828241
320 pages

Synopsis

A House Without Walls is a powerful story of family, hope and redemption amidst the refugee crisis in Syria from the award-winning Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Lucy Eldridge.

Thirteen-year-old Safiya and her family have been driven out of Syria by civil war. Safiya knows how lucky she is – lucky not to be living in a refugee camp, lucky to be alive. But it's hard to feel grateful when she's forced to look after her father and brother rather than go back to school, and now that she's lost her home, she's lonelier than ever.

As they struggle to rebuild their lives, Safiya realizes that her family has always been incomplete and with her own future in the balance, it's time to uncover the secrets that war has kept buried.

[H]umane and empathetic . . . Not only eye-opening, important and topical, but a vivid, emotionally involving, nail-biting read . . .an effective call to action.
A muscular, moving, thought-provoking book from an award-winning writer
Not only does it explain how the war in Syria began in as clear a way as I have ever heard but [Elizabeth Laird] makes her characters lovable, loathable - and believable. They are children of war but not defined by it . . . fascinating and sing[s] with truth.