Title: My Name is Konisola
Author: Alisa Siegel
Publishers: Second Story Press
Genres: Children’s Fiction, Middle Grade
Pages: 152
Format: Ebook
Rating: 5/5
Release Date: 17th March 2020
Where to Buy: Amazon U.K., Amazon USA, Second Story Press, Book Depository
Summary: On a freezing cold winter night, nine-year-old Konisola and her mother step off a plane in Canada. They have almost nothing with them except the clothes on their backs. They are running for their lives. Soon after they land, disaster strikes. Konisola’s mother becomes sick, and Konisola is forced to fend for herself, in a strange country, with no family and no friends. Then she meets a remarkable Canadian nurse, and things begin to change for the better. But Konisola’s future remains uncertain. Will this new life, this new home and the friendships she has found be taken from her? Will she be allowed to stay in Canada as a refugee? Will her mother? Or will they both be sent back across the ocean?
Thank you so much to Second Story Press who provided me with an E-Arc through NetGalley to read and review of My Name is Konisola written by Alisa Siegel.
Review: A heartbreaking but beautiful story.
This story was so sad, the things that Konisola had to endure in her short life she’d had were those that you’d wish to shelter your kids from. Living through family death, abuse, relocating and starting her life again in a foreign land.
It was written so well and is such a vital story for children to read, to teach them what refugee children have to go through and how hard it is for them. You very rarely find a story that features these topics, not being afraid to show children a harsher and more serious topic.
I loved that she built up a whole new family in Canada who gathered at her side no matter what who were there to love and protect her as one of their own, to comfort her and help her settle into this new and scary world. Caring for her with her mom being really sick in the hospital.
Konisola was such a sweet little girl, she was very brave and strong and I loved that her mom had given her the strength she had by telling her of the Nigerian Queens, wanting her little girl to be independent. She was so caring towards her mom and it pained me reading of her mom being so unwell and Konnie being separated from her.
I am so saddened that this was a real story, but also so happy that Konnie got a happier life after all she’d been through. It was a beautifully written story that had so many raw emotions and you feel them on every page you read. I also loved getting to see her in the back of the book.
apapergirlapapertown 
Brilliant review 🙂
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