No Safe Place: Summary and book reviews of No Safe Place by Deborah Ellis, plus links to an excerpt from No Safe Place and a biography of Deborah Ellis.

Orphaned and plagued with the grief of losing everyone he loves, 15-year-old Abdul has made a long, fraught journey from his war-torn home in Baghdad, only to end up in The Jungle - a squalid, makeshift migrant community in Calais. Desperate to escape, he takes a spot in a small, overloaded England-bound boat that’s full of other illegal migrants - and a secret stash of heroin. A sudden skirmish leaves the boat stalled in the middle of the Channel, the pilot dead, and four young people remaining - Abdul; Rosalia, a Romani girl who has escaped from the white slave trade; Cheslav, gone AWOL from a Russian military school; and Jonah, the boat pilot's ten-year-old nephew. As they attempt to complete the frantic and hazardous Channel crossing their individual stories are revealed and their futures become increasingly uncertain. No Safe Place is a novel of high adventure and heart-stopping suspense by a writer at the height of her powers.

BookBrowse

No Safe Place is my favorite kind of book: one that brings seemingly different characters together and shows that, lo and behold, they are not so different after all. One that illuminates the connections that the characters have, and that, ultimately, we all have.  (Reviewed by Tamara Smith).

Full Review (775 words).

Media Reviews

Booklist Ellis attempts a great deal for one short book, but she makes even the multiple coincidences work, and there is no sentimentality. ...The spare narrative celebrates the power of community to overcome the worst. Grades 7-10.   School Library Journal Starred Review. Orphans of the world and victims of human trafficking need all the press they can get, and this book does a great job of introducing the topic and allowing young people to see beyond the headlines. Ages 9+   Kirkus Reviews Starred Review. What the best literature for young readers can be - simple, elegant language crafted to tell a story as full and rich as life itself. Eminently memorable.

Recent Reader Reviews

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