- Title: Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey
- Author(s): Margriet Ruurs
- Illustrator/Photographer: Nizar Ali Badr
- Publisher and Year: Orca Book Publishers, 2016
- Number of pages: 18
- Tags: Diversity, Family, Culture, Emotion, K-8, Picture Book, Morgan Houk
- Genre: Realistic Fiction
This story is about a young girl and her family who are forced to leave their war-torn country of Syria and travel overseas to a safer, new home in Europe. The story is about the power of family as well as the uncertainty, fear, and danger that refugees face on their journey to a safer place.
The text is bilingual showing English text followed by an Arabic translation. This is a really awesome feature of this book because the people in the story are from a country whose predominant language is Arabic. This can act as a mirror for an audience who either speaks Arabic or has had to flee their home for some reason as well. For many, this book can act as a window into the lives of refugees. Many people will never have to experience this heart-breaking tragedy so it is important that we expose ourselves and try to get a better understanding of what these people go through. We can also see the culture of this Syrian family that we can trust is accurately represented due to the Syrian artist behind the illustrations. Another important aspect to this book is that, at the end, there is a list of organizations around the world that help refugees get acclimated in a new place in which they may only have the things they could carry on their backs. Because of this section in the book, it opens a door for the read to action about this social justice issue. Readers feel a lot of emotions while reading the story and it was definitely crucial for the author to include a full page solely dedicated to ways the reader can help the issue.
The pictures in the story are absolutely phenomenal. The artist created them using little stones that he collected off of the beaches in his home country of Syria. The illustrations go along nicely with the text in that they show the family’s harsh travel in a way that doesn’t hold back but is also not too gruesome for a younger audience. It is truly incredible that the artist was able to beautifully depict this rather difficult story using only stones he found a washed up on a beach.
The illustrations also follow certain picture book codes. When the author talks about the bombs that have fallen too close to Rama’s home, the background is black as night and the characters appear rather small and powerless in comparison the dark background 
surrounding them. This can signify the true powerlessness of refugees and the power that war has over human life.