Celia Barker Lotteridge,
Home is Beyond the Mountains
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010.

Rating: G*

Based on true events, Home is Beyond the Mountains, takes readers on an unbelievable wartime journey of Assyrian refugee children across hundreds of miles of dangerous terrain.

Celia Lotteridge's mother was born in Persia (modern-day Iran) so Celia grew up hearing stories of the brave deeds of her mother's older sister Susan, director of a Hamadan orphanage in 1922. 

Samira enjoys a peaceful summer night in July 1918 when Turkish troops arrive in the Persian village of Ayna. Her family flees for their lives before the invading army. Soon, disease and hunger spread through the fleeing Assyrian refugees. Maryam, her younger sister, dies of a mysterious fever, and her father and brother Benyamin disappear while hiding from soldiers. Not long afterwards, her mother dies. On the road, she manages to find her brother, but their father is now lost. The two children travel on alone.

Arriving at the Baqubah Refugee Camp near Baghdad, Samira and her brother find themselves in the Assyrian Orphan Section. They are transferred from one orphanage to another until they end up in Hamadan under the directorship of Miss Shedd. Throughout their ordeal, they experience extreme hunger and deprivation: "The children shivered under their quilts at night and dressed quickly in the morning to run to the eating room where hot tea and warm bread would be ready for them." (p. 87) However, they also start to make a new life for themselves in the orphanage. Samira befriends fellow orphan Anna and young Elias, and Benyamin becomes a leader of the older boys. As the war draws to a close, the orphans long to return to their native villages to find what remains of their families.

Readers will be intrigued by the details of the Assyrian refugee experience in the early 20th century. An entire population was uprooted from villages where they had spent centuries while fleeing the invading Turkish army. Families were torn apart, and many refugees lost their lives on this dangerous and treacherous journey. Samira and her brother Benyamin start the journey as terrified children, but as a result of their experiences, they become kind and compassionate adults who care for the other orphans around them. 

Thematic Links: Iranian History and Geography; World War I; Refugees; Grief; Survival; Determination; Family Relationships

Myra Junyk
Vol. 16, number 2
December 2010

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.