Refugee:

Dear Diary
Student Name:

Mr. Mastoropoulos
SCHOOL NAME
 Instructions
Now that we’ve been introduced to several characters in Refugee
by Alan Gratz, we have a better understanding of their
personalities and how they interact with their environments. As
such, this assignment will ask you to write a diary as if you are
either Josef, Isabel, or Mahmoud. You should include 3 events
that they’ve encountered throughout the story and reflect on
how they affected them.

The goal for this specific project, then, is to embody one of the
main characters from Refugee.

You must address all of the following sections and guidelines

in your project:

Introduction (approximately 100 words)

- You must introduce yourself. Who are you?
- Why are you writing a journal entry? What is your purpose?
- What three events will you write about?

Main Bodies (approximately 300 words)

- The following are some events you can describe from the
story:
o Kristallnacht: The Nazis raid Josef’s home and he has
to leave Germany all together.
o Death on the M.S. St. Louis: Josef experiences a
funeral at sea. His father loses his temper when he’s
told they want to wrap him in a Nazi flag.
o Starvation in Cuba: Soviet Union falls, and Cuba is in
an economic crisis. Isabel and her family begin to feel
the backlash of the events and recognize the lack of
food, work, and opportunities in Havana.
o Beach Escape: Isabel and company plan to escape by
boat. They are followed by the media as they try to
board their wooden vessel on the shores of Cuba.
 o Bombs in Aleppo: Mahmoud and his family have to
live day to day in Syria not knowing when the next
bomb is going to drop.
o Smugglers in Turkey: Mahmoud and his family sleep
in abandoned buildings as they wait for Turkish
smugglers to bring them aboard a ship to Greece.

- You are not restricted to these events. You can come up with
your own ideas/aspects to describe in your paper.
- Make sure to explain how these events have affected your
character.

Conclusion (approximately 100 words)

- Restate your purpose and how the events have affected you.
- Leave the reader with a final thought.

The written parts of your project should equal a total of 400 –

600 words in length. It should also include a completed
brainstorming map (see next page).