This graphic novel is ‘graphic indeed’. There is terror, tragedy, desolation and determination and a happy ending of sorts, but the detail is harrowing, and it is often difficult to believe that humans can survive such experiences. Even so, there is humour as well, which helps to make the story more palatable. The novel is divided into separate sections, ‘Then’ and ‘Now’, and these sections overlap each other. It begins in ‘Now’ in a boat that should only have 7 people and actually has 14. The boat is making a dangerous journey, we don’t know where, and the sea is cold and lonely. Chapter two is backwards in time in ‘Then’ and we meet Ebo, a 12 year old boy, in a village in Africa, who has just discovered that his older brother Kwame has disappeared. This is worrying because their sister Sisi has disappeared some time before, and Ebo knows that both must have gone to Europe. A note and a picture of their family as it used to be are the only things that Kwame has left for Ebo. Their drunken uncle who has supposedly been looking after them is hopeless, and Ebo can only make the decision to follow his brother, find him and go to Europe too. We are back and forth then between ‘Now’ and ‘Then’. ‘Then’ is the entire journey with Ebo finding Kwame, their trip across the Sahara Desert, great danger and illness in Tripoli, the goodness (and horrific badness) of those they meet, being cheated out of the money they make by working along the way, and the horrors of the final part of the journey that takes us back to the boat. There is hopefulness and hopelessness, weakness and strength, and Ebo comes through, but it is not without great tragedy. We love Ebo and Kwame, and we want desperately to help them and all those like them who need our help. The graphics are beautifully done, the journey wholly believable, and this is a book that is needed to help children (and adults) understand the kind of lives that refugees live. Absolutely outstanding.