Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

ACTIVITY: Map Creation of the Journeys in Refugee

Working with your peers, create a single map of the three different characters’ journeys in the novel. Mark each city mentioned in the novel, and draw a line to connect the cities together within a single journey. You can use the back of the book for guidance on the different places that each character visits. Be sure to use different colors for each route in order to clearly show the differences and similarities in the journeys. Which cities are commonly discussed in the novel? Are any of the routes similar? Which character’s route is the most different? Which route is the longest in days? What about in terms of distance?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity can be done either as a class or as group work. Provide students with a blank printout of a map that shows Europe, the Middle East, the Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean and North America, as well as three different color markers in order to draw the routes and mark the specific cities the characters visit. For example, Mahmoud’s route should include his starting point of Aleppo, along with Kilis and Izmir in Turkey, Lesbos and Athens in Greece, and so on.