Finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award

Orphaned and plagued with the grief of losing everyone he loves, fifteen-year-old Abdul has made a long, fraught journey from his war-torn home in Baghdad, only to end up in The Jungle -- the squalid, makeshift migrant community in Calais.

When an altercation at the soup kitchen ends up with him accidently stabbing a policeman, Abdul has to flee, and in desperation he takes a spot in a small boat heading to England. A sudden skirmish leaves the boat stalled in the middle of the Channel, the pilot dead, and four young people remaining -- Abdul; Rosalia, a Romani girl who has escaped from the white slave trade; Cheslav, gone AWOL from a Russian military school; and Jonah, the boat pilot's ten-year-old nephew.

The four of them end up hijacking a yacht and, despite their fear and mistrust, they form a kind of makeshift family. And as the authorities close in on them, they find refuge in an unusual place -- a child's secret cave on the English coast.

Deborah Ellis is the internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books for children, including The Breadwinner Trilogy; The Heaven Shop; Lunch With Lenin; Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees; and Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS. She has won many national and international awards for her books, including the Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Book for Older Readers.Deborah knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of 11 or 12. Growing up in Paris, Ontario, she loved reading about big cities like New York. In high school, Deborah joined the Peace Movement, playing anti-Nuclear War movies at her school. Since then Deborah has become a peace activist, humanitarian and philanthropist, donating almost all of the royalties from her books to communities in need in Asia and Africa. Heavily involved with Women for Women in Afghanistan, Deborah has helped build women’s centers and schools, giving children education and finding work for women.In 2006, Deborah was named to the Order of Ontario. She now lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Deborah Ellis' profile page

TONY NASH is a trained film and theatre actor based out of Toronto, of Egyptian, Greek, and Spanish descent. He first began acting as a child as a means of keeping himself, his parents and his brother entertained and later in high school where he was awarded back-to-back wins for best male performance and best director in the Sears regional One-Act Play Festival. In university, he took some time off to pursue a career in law and then in teaching before he decided to turn back to his first and most compelling love, the art of acting. He has since acted in the TV series Damien, the sequel to the 1970s film The Omen, and has co-starred in the feature film Fake News alongside Eric Roberts. You can currently catch him playing Ibrahim Salah on MGM's thriller TV series, Condor. He is fluent in Arabic, French and Spanish.

Tony Nash's profile page

• Short-listed, SYRCA Snow Willow Award
• Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens
• Commended, OLA Best Bets
• Commended, Resource Links' Year's Best

What the best literature for young readers can be-simple, elegant language crafted to tell a story as full and rich as life itself. Eminently memorable.

Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

This novel moves fast and furiously...exciting and moving.

School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

Ellis' young readers love her because she speaks to them as intelligent, empathetic beings who will soon have agency in the world, and in No Safe Place, this gift is still powerfully evident.

Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW

Flashbacks involving the effects of war and poverty on communities and families drive this fast-paced and heart-wrenching narrative, which deals honestly with countless harsh realities.

Publishers Weekly Online

Flashbacks to each character's personal story are interwoven with the present-tense violence, prejudice, kindness, and community that the young characters find on their journey.

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