In 1956, Bobbie Kalman was nine and living in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary, a town made infamous when the state police opened fire on unarmed protestors during the Hungarian Revolution. Kalman records her memories of that day and her family’s subsequent defection to Canada in Refugee Child, a book that combines historical and personal narrative with photographs and illustrations. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the revolution, the text is marketed to readers ages nine to adult, though its tone and presentation make it too juvenile for older audiences.

Prolific author Kalman tells her own story for the first time, chronicling the excitement and terror that marked her family’s nighttime escape to Austria. Her descriptions of her grandparents, and their final farewell, are particularly moving, and the narrative should make a profound impression on young readers about the real costs of forced immigration. Educators will find it a useful resource on a topic not otherwise well documented for children.

While I enjoyed Kalman’s story, and learned a great deal about Hungarian history and the revolution, I found the text uneven. Buttressing the personal narrative with an explanatory preface and historical overview seems repetitive and unnecessary. Kalman is adept at making difficult concepts accessible for kids, and thus could have easily incorporated the history into her autobiography, and kept the supporting (and very helpful) glossary and bibliography. The autobiography itself is problematic because it’s mired in too much personal detail. The final chapters, in particular, dealing with Kalman’s adult life, seem better tailored to family than public history.