Displaced
by Patrick Ochieng
Middle School, High School    Carolrhoda    224 pp.
8/25    9798765648698    $18.99

Fourteen-year-old Kimathi lives in a suburb of the Kenyan city of Eldoret, but when his father is murdered during post-election violence, he flees. Like so many others after the 2007–2008 elections, he ends up in a camp for Internally Displaced Persons with his mother and five-year-old sister, Ngina. Since this is Kim’s first-person present-tense narrative, readers get one boy’s view of camp conditions, but we see enough to know the harsh realities of his new life: nightmares about his father’s death, prejudice at the school he attends, typhoid, fires, and crooked water sellers. Kim is a kind boy able to see the goodness of people trying to make the best of bad situations. He finds a community of friends and even becomes a hero in the camp, for helping both to rescue a woman from a fire and to coordinate the delivery of water tanks that will provide clean water and thus save lives. Through his protagonist’s point of view, Ochieng offers a memorable reminder of how political conflict affects children; as one young person Kim meets in the camp puts it, “We’re just kids! Why can’t we have a normal life like other kids? Is that too much to ask for?” Back matter includes an author’s note and questions for discussion.

From the September/October 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.