On the Move: Home Is Where You Find It

Gr 4-8–Rosen writes poetry about his life as a young boy in London, his understanding that family members disappeared during World War II, and his search for them and their stories. The introduction defines the difference between migrants and refugees—an important distinction today as the world fills with both. Poems are divided into four sections: “Family and Friends,” “The War,” “The Migrants in Me,” and “On the Move Again.” Thoughtful readers will be aware that Rosen’s search has no easy answers. The poems are not straightforward or simple, but more evocative of a child’s feelings about the knowledge of missing family members as empty places in a family history, as well as how the search for answers brings some clarity and even more mystery. Sections on war and the disappearance of family are truthful, but without unnecessary trauma. Not until the back matter do readers learn that the poems are an extension of Rosen’s book, The Missing: The True Story of my Family in World War II. Resources include a list of organizations supporting refugees and people affected by displacement, as well as a list of charities and organizations with information on the Holocaust. Illustrations by Blake in watercolor, using mostly gray and shades of blue, are evocative and complementary to the poems; they mostly depict people on the move without details, but the people are clearly either running toward or away from something.