Children's ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
Refugee
Alan Gratz · 2017
🎙 Narrated by Michael Goldstrom, Kyla Garcia, and Assaf Cohen (Scholastic Audio)
84/100
👍 Worth It
A smart, propulsive way to teach kids that the refugee experience isn't one story but many, spanning generations and still painfully current. Heavy material — the Holocaust, war, a suicide reference — but it's handled honestly without being gratuitous, and the payoff connecting the three kids' stories lands well. The three-narrator cast is genuinely excellent, praised for how the accents carry each era's emotion.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Touches the Holocaust, war crimes, and a suicide reference — handled age-appropriately for the target range but worth guided listening for younger kids.. We still scored it 84; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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🎙 Narration: excellent AudioFile Magazine praised how the three narrators' accents differentiate characters and eras while conveying shared fear, courage, and family love.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety68
Substance / usefulness88
Craft & writing85
Originality78
Evidence & accuracy85
Hype vs delivers75
Age-fit72
Human-eye read85
Penny’s verdict84
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