Mina and her family fled Afghanistan on a boat, ending up in a detention centre in Australia.
Michael's parents started a political party called Aussie Values. Their goal is to stop the boats.
Mina just wants to help other refugees and stop the hatred.
MIna wins a scholarship to Michael's school, and even though they start on opposite sides of a belief, they end up fighting on the same side.
Asylum seekers and immigration detention (Issues in Society) by 
The global refugee crisis (Issues in Society) by 
Human rights and civil liberties (Issues in Society) by 
Religious freedom and discrimination (Issues in Society) by 
F WHI - Culture
Obulejo, a sixteen-year-old Madi boy, is asleep when the town is attacked by Rebel troops. Separated from family, Obulejo flees on a terrifying journey. Once across the border in a refugee camp, he is safer but has no future -- until he joins a pioneering peace education program and begins to find ways to create a more hopeful life for himself and others.
F SUN - Culture Genre
Fleeing Afghanistan, Ali finds himself on a boat bound for Australia, away from his family. Everyone on the boat is taken to a detention centre, and Ali waits twelve months to find out if he can stay in Australia or not.
F SAT - Graphic Novel Genre
Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
F LEW - Culture Genre
A small group of refugees is crowded on a boat on the sea. They share their stories as the boat travels towards the dream of safety and freedom. One boy, Rami, has brought his violin, and his story of how the violin was invented, and of a stallion that could run like the wind, weaves through the other stories, bringing them all together into a celebration of hope and of the power of music and story.
F GRA - Culture Genre
Two boys meet at the culmination of separate compelling journeys. Omed is a boy from Afghanistan. After making an enemy of the Taliban on the day the Buddhas of Bamiyan are destroyed, he undertakes a perilous journey to seek asylum in Australia. Hector is a grieving Australian boy who has given up on school and retreated into silence. Their paths meet at a candle factory where they both find work. But secrets fester behind the monotonous routine of the assemby line, secrets with terrible consequences. Ultimately, it is up to Hector to determine how the story ends.
F GLE - Culture Genre
Mahtab's family flees Afghanistan and travel via Pakistan and Indonesia to Australia where they are put in a detention centre - will they be released, and will they meet up again with Mahtab's father, who has gone on ahead?
F FRE - Culture Genre
Faris is a 13-year-old Afghani who spent much of his life in Pakistan refugee camps before making the voyage from Indonesia to Australia. As the boat crashes against the rocks of Christmas Island he loses consciousness and awakes to find himself in the life he has always dreamed of in Australia, but with no memory of how he got there: not unusual, says his doctor father. He becomes one of a gang of kids who roam the beach, led by an older boy, although he slowly realises that the true power is wielded by ten year old Susanna - who has been ten years old for twenty years. Each of the children in the gang has come to Australia as a place of hope or refuge and they represent the times and places of Australia's greatest migrations. Their life is everything they have dreamed of, from the wonderful House of Women for Chinese Tien Ling to Irish Dairmid's farm, Luis's fishing boat, the library that goes on forever, and the musical concerts for German David Goldberg. Slowly our Afghan boy realises that each day he can make the choice: to stay in the dream or walk through the door on the beach, or to go back to the sea and the rocks and accept real life instead.
F ERP - Culture Genre (Different cover)
Richard has spent his life as a university professor, immersed in the world of books and ideas, but now he is retired, his books remain in their packing boxes and he steps into the streets of his city, Berlin. Here, on Alexanderplatz, he discovers a new community - a tent city, established by African asylum seekers. Hesitantly, getting to know the new arrivals, Richard finds his life changing, as he begins to question his own sense of belonging in a city that once divided its citizens into them and us. (From publisher)
F DAL - Culture Genre
A story of love and loyalty, prejudice and pride. Seventeen-year-old Jed White lives with his mum and dad behind the Ampol service station in the small coastal town of Plenty. His girlfriend Chrissy works in the local fish cannery. When a foreign trawler crashes on the rocks one night, Jed and Chrissy figure from the rolls of stained bedding below deck that the boat must have been carrying a lot of people. They soon discover that dozens of refugees are sheltering at a nearby property.
F COL - Graphic Novel Genre
Ebo: alone. His sister left months ago. Now his brother has disappeared too, and Ebo knows it can only be to make the hazardous journey to Europe. Ebo's epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step, he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his sister. A powerful and timely story about one boy's epic journey across Africa to Europe, a graphic novel for all children. (Publisher)
F BRA - LIT SETS - ask Library Staff
Maddy Frank has always lived in Jermyn Street. Always. But now her mum and dad are making her move from the city, far away to someplace called Plenty. How will Maddy survive without everything and everyone she knows? Nobody understands. But what about her mysterious new classmate, Grace Wek, who was born in a refugee camp? Could Grace actually understand how Maddy feels? (Back cover)
F BAN - Culture Genre
Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one. When they make their escape, a guard raises the alarm. Shouting, smoke bombs, people tackled to the ground. In the chaos Sima loses her parents. Dad told her to run, so she does, hiding in a school and triggering a lockdown. A boy, Dan, finds her hiding in the toilet block. What should he do? Help her? Dob her in? She's breaking the law, but is it right to lock kids up? And if he helps, should Sima trust him? Or run? This moment, these decisions will change the course of their lives. (Back cover)
F ATK - Culture Genre
Anahita is passionate, curious and determined. She is also an Iranian asylum seeker who is only allowed out of detention to attend school. On weekdays, between 8 am and 3 pm, she can be a 'regular Australian girl'. Jono needs the distraction of an infatuation. In the past year, his mum has walked out, he's been dumped and his sister has moved away. Lost and depressed, Jono feels as if he's been left behind with his Vietnamese single father, Kenny. Kenny is struggling to work out the rules in his new job; he recently started work as a guard at the Wickham Point Detention Centre. He tells Anahita to look out for Jono at school but quickly comes to regret this, spiralling into suspicion and mistrust. Who is this girl, really? What is her story? Is she a genuine refugee or a queue jumper? He begins to snoop behind the scenes, as Jono and Anahita grow closer.
BIO 920 ACT (Biography Genre)
Tells the stories of over fifty people involved in supporting the plight of asylum seekers in Australia. For some, the refugee issue has become a defining personal stance, one which has engaged and divided families and communities. Includes stories,poems and political cartoons
BIO 920 ADU - Biography Genre
Deng Adut's family were farmers in South Sudan when a brutal civil war altered his life forever. At six years old, his mother was told she had to give him up to fight. At the age most Australian children are starting school, Deng was conscripted into the Sudan People's Liberation Army. He began a harsh, relentless military training that saw this young boy trained to use an AK-47 and sent into battle. He lost the right to be a child. He lost the right to learn. The things Deng saw over those years will stay with him forever. He suffered from cholera, malaria and numerous other debilitating illnesses but still, he had to fight. A child soldier is expected to kill or be killed and Deng almost died a number of times. He survived being shot in the back. The desperation and loneliness were overwhelming. He thought he was all alone. But Deng was rescued from war by his brother John. Hidden in the back of a truck, he was smuggled out of Sudan and into Kenya. Here he lived in refugee camps until he was befriended by an Australian couple. With their help and the support of the UN, Deng Adut came to Australia as a refugee. Despite physical injuries and mental trauma, he grabbed the chance to make a new life. He worked in a local service station and learnt English watching The Wiggles. He taught himself to read and started studying at TAFE. In 2005 he enrolled in a Bachelor of Law at Western Sydney University. He became the first person in his family to graduate from university. This is an inspiring story of a man who has overcome deadly adversity to become a lawyer and committed worker for the disenfranchised, helping refugees in Western Sydney. It is an important reminder of the power of compassion and the benefit to us all when we open our doors and our hearts to fleeing war, persecution and trauma. (Publisher)
BIO 920 BOO - Biography Genre
"Where have I come from? From the land of rivers, the land of waterfalls, the land of ancient chants, the land of mountains. In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island. He has been there ever since. People would run to the mountains to escape the warplanes and found asylum within their chestnut forests. This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of a witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and exile. Do Kurds have any friends other than the mountains? (Back cover)
BIO 920 DO - Biography Genre
Autobiography of Australian comedian, Ahn Do, full of truth about his journey from starving at sea, to inspiration as a man of comedy.
BIO 920 FRO - Biography Genre
Extracts from letters written by asylum seekers held in Australia's detention centres.
BIO 920 KAR - Biography Genre
A powerful, heartfelt and inspiring memoir from one of Australia's leading human rights advocates, Kon Karapanagiotidis, The Power of Hope tells the story of how Kon overcame his traumatic childhood of racism, bullying and loneliness to create one of Australia's largest and best-loved human rights organisations, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, which has gone on to transform the lives of thousands of refugees and has helped build a movement. A book about how love, compassion, kindness and courage can transform our communities and ourselves, The Power of Hope shows us in times of darkness, both personal and political, that if we stand as one we can shine brightly and fiercely - as together we are powerful.
BIO 920 MAZ
The Rug-maker of Mazar-e-Sharif is a memoir of Najaf Mazari, an Afghani refugee who travelled to Australia, was detained in Woomera detention centre, went through various trials to gain permanent residency in Australia and eventually opened a rug shop in Prahran, Melbourne, which he still operates today. Najaf's story is written by Robert Hillman.
BIO 920 SAY - Biography Genre
More to the Story looks beyond negative media reports, political speeches and fear-mongering statistics to tell human stories of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. Rosemary Sayer writes with empathy and humility of her interviews with refugees from Burma, Afghanistan and South Sudan. Together, they tell stories of persecution, violence and starvation; families separated for a time, or forever; the desperation of thousands in refugee camps, awaiting relocation under humanitarian programs; the perilous journeys by boat of those for whom waiting would have meant death; life in mandatory detention; and the challenges of starting over in Australia. None of these people chose to be refugees; all of them chose survival. A powerful, moving and inspiring account of human resilience that every Australian should read. (Back cover)
“Bad things happen when good people remain silent.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, When Michael Met Mina
“Words. And meaning. You can't own one and not the other.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, When Michael Met Mina
“I want to tell him that when we were in the camps waiting for a boat we spoke about what we imagined Australia would be like. Kangaroos, koalas, wide-open spaces. Then, when we arrived, we were locked up and the images we had shrunk smaller and smaller until Australia became tiny patches of sky beyond the barbed wire.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, When Michael Met Mina
