Amina's story may be fictional, but all the separate pieces of it are true and have been lived by thousands of real people.

In 2013 Amina's home is destroyed in an explosion. Her beloved country of Syria is in the midst of a lengthy civil war and it finally reached Aleppo. Although only one panel makes it clear and the loss is never mentioned or dealt with,

Spoiler

Amina's grandfather is killed.

The book could have made this more clear and I wish the family would have been given the space to acknowledge this part of their tragedy.

Eventually Amina's family is resettled, as is evidenced on the very first page. But resettlement doesn't mean an end to all their troubles or that they don't feel an ache for Syria, their homeland.

The last spread of pages is a bit confusing. There are some situations that should have been given space to breathe but weren't. Overall, I think this book would have benefitted from at least an additional 20 pages. Perhaps that's the publisher's fault. I felt like the story just left off in the middle because of those last few panels with Amina's father and his phone. Without those the story would have felt complete. Still, this book humanizes the story of resettled refugees. It's a must read for those who learn well from graphic novels or who want an entryway into understanding the global refugee crisis.