Books like The Paper Boat: A Refugee Story
By Thao Lam
For families ready to talk about where they came from, this wordless story opens a door gently, letting the pictures carry what words might not. Hushed, tender, and quietly intense — moonlit and suspenseful, but never without hope.
A four-year-old boy and his Japanese American family are forced from their California home into incarceration camps during World War II, moving through three different sites over three years while his parents work to keep the family safe.
An egg named Humpty Dumpty loves nothing more than watching birds from high on the city wall — until a great fall leaves him terrified of heights, and he must find the courage to climb again.
A timid squirrel afraid of thunder, hawks, and dark forest paths must carry soup through Buckthorn Forest to her sick Granny Oak, facing creatures who want to help — and some who want the soup.
A young Armenian boy leaves behind his home and everyone he has known to search for refuge, carrying his story until he finally finds the courage to share it.
In 1707, an eight-year-old girl travels into the Connecticut wilderness with her father to build a new home, then must find her courage when he leaves her with their Indian neighbors.
A girl and her fox companion leave a sorrowful past behind, journeying through storms and hard times, meeting friends along the way, until a new day dawns full of promise.
An enslaved man endures separation from his family in Virginia, then hits on a desperate plan: mailing himself in a wooden crate to freedom in the North.
A young girl is separated from her mother at the last moment and must sail to America alone, only to discover the address for her family in New York has smudged into illegible ink.
Born into slavery, a woman hears the voice of God calling her north and escapes through the woods with only her faith, beginning the journey that will make her Moses to her people.
During the Syrian Civil War, an ambulance driver stays behind in Aleppo when his neighbors flee, and finds himself feeding and comforting the many cats they left behind.
A young girl leaves her grandmother's house in Mexico to join her parents and brother in New York, facing a new language, unfair accusations, and the slow work of calling a new place home.
A small mouse leaves everything familiar behind to journey toward a legendary far-off land, facing danger after danger and giving up more than he expected to help others along the way.
