Published by Crown Books for Young Readers

Summary:  When Sura and her five children decided to secretly leave their home in Mosul, Iraq in 2015, another family member was hidden among their belongings: their beautiful white cat, Kunkush.  Smugglers helped them out of the country, across Turkey, and to a boat that carried them to Greece, but those smugglers would have charged them much more money to bring a cat along, so Kunkush had to stay hidden.  When the family finally arrived in Greece, the cat carrier broke, and Kunkush ran away.  The heartbroken family searched for as long as they could, but eventually had to move on.  An American aid worker found the cat months later, filthy and half-starved, and took him home with her.  She launched a search for the family via Facebook, and they were eventually located, resulting in a happy reunion with Kunkush.  Includes a note from the authors, who helped Kunkush in Greece, a map of the cat’s journey, and photographs of him and his family.  48 pages; ages 4-10.

Pros:  Mosul may seem far away, but readers will connect with this family’s loss of their beloved pet, while learning about the difficulties they encountered as refugees.

Cons:  2017 seems to be the year of the refugee in children’s literature, a sad reflection of the world situation.