Alpha: Abidjan to Gare du Nord
by Bessora and Barroux
Translated by Sarah Ardizzone
Interest age: 14 to 16
Reading age: 14+
Published by The Bucket List, 2016
About this book
Alpha is leaving the Ivory Coast where he has lived all his life. He hasn't made the decision lightly, but the dangerous journey to another country is still a better choice than staying where he is. His wife and child have already left, and they've agreed to meet at Gare du Nord in France, where he has friends they can stay with while they start a new life. But Alpha's journey with people traffickers, through inhuman refugee camps and on the overcrowded boats across perilous waters, is unimaginably awful.
A powerful, terrible and essential story, Alpha should be required reading for everyone. The story's format as a graphic novel, created by renowned illustrator Barroux with just the basic materials that could conceivably be found by a refugee, highlights the terror and hopelessness experienced by someone forced to leave their own country in search of a future.
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