Yara’s Spring tells the story of a young girl named Yara as war breaks out in her country of Syria and finds its way to her city of Aleppo. When tragedy strikes, Yara must find away to keep her friends and family safe. They must travel through the country torn with war and attacks to seek asylum. Yara quickly grows from a young girl to an amazing young women. I am a huge fan of historical fiction. I think this book brings to light recent events that have overlooked. I really enjoyed this book and would adapt it into a book unit for ELA or social studies.

A beautiful, heartwarming read that every middle school library should carry. Raw and real and told from the perspective of a young girl during a civil war. Highly recommend as a read that teaches us to see the world from another view, how war shapes and changes people.

Yara's Spring was a very beautiful, sad, and descriptive telling of the struggles faced by Yara and her family (and I'm sure many others) in Syria during Arab Spring. Showing the reader how Aleppo goes from such a beautiful city to one with bombs, crumbling buildings, and war the authors have created a story that although it is fiction, shares the emotions and feelings in amazing detail. This is a definite purchase for my collection!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. This is the story of a family surviving through the war in Syria. While fiction, it is based on real events and tells the story of real lives. The plot and suspense had me turning pages, while the interactions and discussions between characters had me feel emotional. I appreciate that the story is clean enough for middle schoolers and young adults. The strong women in this story show all different angles and sides of strength. I finished reading the book feeling more sad than hopeful, but there is a lot for readers to discuss after reading this book. Don’t skip the author’s note at the end! While I wish I definitively knew what happened to the neighbors and extended family, many in Syria didn’t get to know what happened to their loved ones either, so the ending is as happy as a war story could end.

This is an important story about Arab Spring and the ensuing devastation in Syria told from the point of a middle-school-aged girl. The beauty of the book is found in the obvious love each character has for their country and its culture and the tremendous loss each one feels as they watch the fighting play out in the streets of their city.

I do wish there was more background information about the conflict so students will be able to understand the plot more easily. Many of my students were born around this time period and don't understand how the problems began. Also, at times it felt like the characters moved from one event to another with very little transitions, but that writing style could be used to give the reader the understanding of how Yara and her family felt as they lived through each tragedy without a breath in between.

Overall, this book would be a solid addition to a classroom library and would make for amazing reading group discussions.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Ten-year-old Yara loves her life in Aleppo where, after running errands for her family’s bakery, she spends her time with her friends and loving parents. Not long after her eleventh birthday, her brother Saad is born. But something much bigger is looming on the horizon, as well. Slowly, the walls of her beloved city begin to close in as bombs and guns fill the space where music and laughter once lived. One day, a specifically placed projectile smashes into Yara’s life, launching her onto a path she could never have imagined.

In the midst of the horrors of war, love somehow finds a way to shine through. This beautifully crafted story blends uncertainty, horror, and anguish with the budding of young romance and familial affection that spans generations. Though Syria is being ripped apart from within, it manages to retain many of the warmer features that define this country through the hearts of its people.

Created by a survivor of Syrian conflict, this fictionalized story encapsulates many true events from the author’s life as well as those experienced by others. Yara’s family faces unspeakable horrors, and every moment is felt by readers. Heartbreak and healing entwine even in the most challenging situations, and readers are compelled to continue reading to learn the outcome of Yara’s journey.

Broken into segments, this story is bookended by Yara in a refugee camp in Jordan with the middle chronicling important events that led her there. A map at the beginning orients readers to Syrian geography and black-and-white illustrations provide visual context at each shift in the timeline.

Advanced middle grade and older readers alike will not forget this profound tale. Long after they close the final cover, readers will remember moments from Yara’s life and find a sense of empathy with those having suffered similar atrocities. This important story brings a true event into the minds of readers around the world, building connection and support to the warriors of Syria in the Arab Spring. It is a critical addition to libraries for mature readers of all ages.

Yara’s Spring tells the story of a young girl named Yara as war breaks out in her country of Syria and finds its way to her city of Aleppo. When tragedy strikes, Yara must find away to keep her friends and family safe. They must travel through the country torn with war and attacks to seek asylum. Yara quickly grows from a young girl to an amazing young women. I am a huge fan of historical fiction. I think this book brings to light recent events that have overlooked.

What an amazing multigenerational story of war, survival, and preservation in Syria. The scary thing is that this war is still in progress, with homes, businesses, and professions being bombed by Assad's Army, various political and ethnic groups, plus foreign countries. A generation of children have grown up surrounded by the rubble of their beautiful towns and watching the slaughter of their family and friends. If they have enough valuables for bribes, they might make it to a refugee camp. This may be the most eyeopening book I have read this year, and the genre “survival story” is taken to a new level of “Real”. Highly recommended for upper middle grades, and above. Thank you to Annick Press Ltd. and Netgalley for the arc.

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This review is going to be a difficult one to write. I have started and re-started this review at least five times now. It is difficult for me to express my gratitude for this author and their work for taking something so real, raw, and awful, and putting it into words. This book interested me from the moment I saw the title. The writing, the story, the plot, the characters, all captivated me from the moment I read the first words. Yara is a young girl just living her life in Syria when all of a sudden her world is being changed by these rebels and their plans to overthrow the government. Her family has the unfortunate luck to live in an area that is captured by the rebels and they are innocent bystanders who must deal with the consequences. Bombs falling from the skies and snipers shooting from the rooftops suddenly become normal in Yara's life. Then one day everything changes and its a battle for survival. The realism of Yara's situation is striking and it broke my heart to read about the experiences of those, especially those so young, going through something so unimaginable. Saeed did a wonderful job of showing the world the real-life horrors of life in a war zone in a way that is raw, believable, tough, but also digestible. This book is perfect for adults, young adults, and older middle grade children with the maturity to handle the tough subjects of war, loss, and tragedy.

Yara's Spring is the powerful story of a young girl struggling to survive in a war torn country. Yara is happily living in Aleppo with a loving family until, war invades their city. She has to adapt and survive so she can help her family escape.

Yara's story grabbed me from the first pages. We begin with her in a Jordanian refugee camp as she recounts how she came to be there. She takes us from her school girl days in Aleppo, across a war ravaged country, hoping to escape to better circumstances. The story is action packed. It's suspenseful and very descriptive. The author does an amazing job describing what it's like to live in a place besieged with uncertainty.

Parts of this book seem a little advanced for some of my 4th graders. It would probably best be suited for those a few years older than my own students. However, I wouldn't have a problem letting my own fifth grade daughter read it and discuss it with her.

I feel so bad for the folks around the world living in war torn countries and refugee camps. Every time I see the bombed out ruins ion the news, I think of the people who were in them and wonder if they survived or not. This is a heartrending tale of one family and their escape to begin a new life. It can be a difficult read at times, but well worth reading. It is fictional, but could very well have been a nonfiction as events are very much possible and likely experienced by many. Sad.

I received an electronic ARC from Annick Press Ltd. through NetGalley.
Powerful story that captures the journey from Aleppo to a Jordanian refugee camp to a chance at life in Canada. The book starts in the refugee camp with the possibility of emigrating. Then readers are immediately transported to Aleppo and meet the entire family together living by their family's bakery. Tragedy strikes soon when bombs fall and Yara loses her mother and father. She and her baby brother survive and stay with close friends. She searches for her grandmother and learns that though injured she survived. Their travel to Damascus to connect with her uncle takes them from danger to danger. Saeed presents realistic details about the violence and lack of humanity on all sides of the war. It is a stark view of life that opens this world beyond headlines. Though a fictitious story, the experiences are real for children in Syria. The book finishes with the family still in the refugee camp but with the hope of moving to Canada. Yara is still together with her grandmother and little brother and knows the challenges to come.
Triggers - War, violence

This book is heartbreaking but so important. It beautifully and powerfully captures the injustices occurring in Syria and I think it's really important that we make stories like this accessible to our children. Children need to see stories from places around the world, and these are stories that so badly need to be told. This would be a really powerful book to use in a read aloud in a classroom.

This book is very sad and a bit scary. You see how Yara's world has been ripped apart and torn so many times, yet she tries to keep calm and help her family. It was unlike anything I've read before. This book is for readers ages 9-12.

"Give what you can, my daughter, even if it is only a smile."

This begins and ends in a refugee camp in Jordan. The rest of the novel reveals what happened to Yara and how she ended up there. It finishes with hope for a better future.

Those in between pages are a hard read. Tears leaked from my eyes more than once. Yara’s life in Aleppo was a happy one with her family in spite of an authoritarian regime. With the Arab Spring uprisings all over the Middle East, conflict in Syria was inevitable.
When her Uncle Sami comes for a visit, Yara ends up asking her father,

What is revolution?
Baba hung his head. “It is another word for war,” he said softly.

Readers see how life changed gradually and then their house and family bakery was bombed by government helicopters. Yara's grandmother, Yara, her younger brother, and two neighbour children flee in search of a way out of Syria and into Jordan. It's a treacherous journey with danger coming from everywhere. At the same time, they are helped by many ordinary people.

Add this to your must read list. Read it and give it to your anti immigrant friends to help you and them understand what it means to be a refugee. #CanKidLit

Yara's Spring is set in war torn Aleppo where one Syrian family navigates the reality of the devastation of war, grief and freedom. Yara is a strong young woman who makes choices to survive through unspeakable odds with the help of friends and family. The novel is full of adventure and painfully addresses the injustices of civilians in a sensitive way that middle school students would be able to digest and make current event connections. Based on Saeed's experiences, Yara's Spring echos that kindness and love can conquer.

Heartbreaking and uplifting at times. The struggle of Yara and her family is written on every page, and although it is a story, it is clear this story could be true for many of the children and families in Syria. Middle Eastern events are often not a part of children's literature. There are more stories that are being told, and with authors to bring those unheard stories to life, not only enriches the lives of children for whom this story is not a window but a mirror, it also allows our comfortable Western children see the struggles and joys others experience around the world.

This would make a good book for discussion at school or library book groups.

Yara's Spring by Sharon McKay and Jamal Saeed is a heart-wrenching book. The amount of emotion in this book is astonishing. The dialogue and characterization of Yara is done extremely well. I highly recommend this book!

YARA'S SPRING is a devastating, poignant, raw, powerful examination of the power of youth, human resilience, the traumas and horrors that people must endure, and the way our love for people keeps us anchored in time and space. Reading this book made me realize that I need to center Syrian and refugee voices more in the books that I read, so I thank the authors for that.

The characters were incredibly well developed, the plot kept moving nicely without making me as a reader get whiplash and wonder who's who and what's going on all the time, and McKay and Saeed managed to portray and convey the urgency of the situation in Syria and so many places around the world while still maintaining some hope and determination within Yara. There are some twists and turns and some absolutely heartbreaking moments, but it is all part of such a worthwhile examination on what it means to be a human, how different everyone around the world is from each other, and what we can do to support those who need it the most. It carries a supremely important message for the youth who will read YARA’s SPRING and shows just how capable and powerful youth are.

Thank you to the publisher and Sharon McKey and Jamal Said for giving me this advance copy. I'l be thinking about this one for a long time to come!

E ARC provided by Netgalley



Yara and her younger brother Saad are in a refugee camp in Jordan in 2016, waiting to hear what their fate might be concerning relocation. We have a brief view of some of the difficulties of the camp before going back to Yara's life in Aleppo in 2011. Her parents and grandmother have a bakery, and her best friend, Shireen and twin brother Ali live nearby. Yara delivers bread to some customers, goes to swimming classes, and is glad to see her Uncle Sami when he visits from Damascus. Things are becoming difficult, however, and before long, Shireen's father is arrested as a political dissident. This means that her mother, Roja, loses her job as a university professor, and it becomes difficult to feed her family. She takes in sewing, and Yara's family helps out as they can. Unfortunately, when their neighborhood is bombed, Yara suffers tragic losses. She and Saad are taken in by Roja, but have no identity papers to use to leave the country. When things worsen, Yara and Shireen go to the ruins of Yara's house to dig up a box with the papers, and find a cache of money and jewelry as well. When Yara's Nana reappears after going missing in the bombing, plans are made to leave the country. Nana has contracted with a man called Rifa'at who has some connections to help them get to Jordan, although they are all convinced they must first travel to Damascus to find Uncle Sami. Roja decides to stay behind, but sends Shireen and Ali with Nana. It's a treacherous journey, and Yara learns more about her grandmother's past. Eventually, Yara does make it to the refugee camp, and we find that two churches in Kingston, Ontario have accepted her application to go there.

Strengths: McKay also wrote Thunder over Kandahar (2010) about life in Afghanistan, and it's great to see her team up with an #ownvoices writer, Jamal Saeed, to write an excellent tales with gripping details about Syria. It's so important that my students not only know the difficulties that people in war torn countries face, but that they also realize that many of these people have lives so similar to their own before they are thrown into confusion and devastation by war. The inclusion of Nana, who had previously lived through political difficulties in the early 1980s, was especially interesting, and Yara and Shireen's friendship added another interesting layer. I have been working on building a collection about how the Arab Spring affected children, and this was another great book on that topic.
Weaknesses: There were a few details about the camps that made me worry that this would be for much older readers (boys call Yara a prostitute), but these were not too explicit, and the rest of the book had a lot of similarity to Senzai's Escape from Aleppo.
What I really think: I would love to see these authors write a book about children in a refugee camp, or a continuation of this story from Saad's perspective as he deals with his selective mutism in his new home in Canada. Definitely purchasing.