Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

The phrase "illegal alien" and  "illegal immigrant" have shot to prominence of late not only here in the United States but overseas as well. Of course a person can't be illegal but by crossing national borders without the required documentation they will break laws and be in a country illegally.

Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin make clear that this is a work of fiction but that the various elements that make up the story are true.

Told in a flashback style, we meet Ebo a young by who is a gifted singer who follows his brother Kwame to Europe. The boys leave Ghana across rough terrain to arrive at Niger and then from there to Libya. They face untold hardships on the various stages of the trip. They face it all with humor and a strong brotherly bond.

I won't give away the end but it is bittersweet. needless to say I found myself thinking about the regions that these migrants come from. They leave various parts of Africa that are desperately poor, riddled with internal conflict (or perhaps both) and risk it all to journey to Europe. Of course with the numbers of migrants that have flooded Europe over the last decade, that has caused other problems in those countries as well. The problems seem to have no easy solution at all.

So the next time you hear a story about a boat full of migrants that sunk off the coast of Italy or Greece, spare a thought for these people who are fleeing conflicts that we here in North America cannot imagine not only in our wildest dreams. Some read alikes  are Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh and Refugee by Alan Gratz and Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed.