No Safe Place (review)

Several teens are among the refugees, driven to the edge of Europe and unable legally to reach their desired destination in Great Britain, who meet at the French port of Calais. A smuggler agrees to run them across the channel, but when he nearly capsizes his own boat while attempting to assault his young nephew, Jonah, the refugees save the boy and allow the smuggler to drown. After pirating an American pleasure boat in the channel and setting its passengers adrift, the teens make their way to Cornwall, where a young girl guides them to shore in a storm, hides them out in a well-equipped cave, and, with her mother's help, finally points them on toward an uncertain future in Liverpool. The teens' collective adventure is riddled with improbabilities and serendipity, not the least of which is their seamanship and navigational success. Far more believable and involving are the individual backstories of the three lead players: Abdul, who has lost parents and siblings in the Iraq War; Rosalia, a Roma sold into prostitution; and Cheslav, a Russian orphan on the lam from military training. Trauma and hardship have made them suspicious of any proffered kindness or support, and their effort to pull together in harness to reach England is believably hobbled by mistrust. The closing chapters seem a bit rushed, and with no indication that a second volume is in the works, the abrupt, open-ended conclusion will leave readers struggling to reconcile the hopeful tone with the teens' utter lack of prospects. Nevertheless, the vulnerability of the refugees rings true, and middle-school readers acquainted with Ellis' fictional and informational books on children of war will want to want to follow this trek.