A house without walls by Elizabeth Laird illustrated by Lucy Eldridge

Safiya is a young girl living in Syria. Her family are forced to flee to Jordan. Safiya has a complex past. Her mother died when she was a baby. Safiya is a twin but her twin sister Saba was taken away when the babies were just a few weeks old. Safiya has never seen Saba who is supposed to be living with relatives in America but in Jordan, Safiya discovers Saba. Uncle Hassan and Aunt Israa have moved back to Jordan and are living in a nearby city.

Safiya is a very resourceful girl. She knows the name of the company where her uncle works. She has been extraordinarily lucky to get some work in a Beauty Salon helping with paper work and answering the telephone. This gives her access to a computer and a telephone, Safiya cleverly phones up the company where her uncle works and spins a tale about a delivery of flowers for Saba. The unwitting receptionist at Askil International supplies an address so now she can surely find her long lost twin sister. 

This fragment of information is vital but Safiya is living in a tent. She is a girl in a Muslim community so she is expected to cook and clean and keep silent. Basic care of herself, her father and brother is very difficult.  They have hardly any money. She is not allowed to travel alone and while her Baba (father) does love her he cannot talk to Safiya about the death of her mother or the loss of her twin sister.  She really has no one to turn to for advice. Safiya is sure her twin will recognise her and that they will immediately become firm friends. This is an important dream which keeps Safiya buoyant with hope but sadly this is really only a dream and the reality is far harsher than she could ever have anticipated.

The strength of this book comes from Safiya herself and from the vivid descriptions of her struggles living in the tent.

"The only thing I knew how to make was pasta with tomato sauce, but it was going to be horribly difficult doing it on a little gas burner outside by the water tank where I'd made a sort of kitchen space. I had to squat on the ground because we didn't have a table, and cut up the onions on a plate with a blunt knife."

"Sweeping out the tent was the next job, and the one I hated most. Masses of dirt crept into the tent every day and grit got caught in the woven matting, even though we always took off our shoes when we came in and left them by the open flap. It took forever to clean up."

There are some extraordinary moments of kindness in this book. The grocery man across the street gives Safiya "stale" cakes and he orgainses a monthly charity food box. The owner of the beauty salon gives Safiya a prettier hijab printed with pale blue flowers. Her uncle Malik joins the family. He is skilled with his hands and repairs and builds things for their tent helping Safiya to make their small space so much more comfortable.

The illustrations in this book by Lucy Eldridge are perfect.

Why will no-one tell her anything about her dead mother?Will she ever find her lost twin sister? Is she being set up for an unwished-for early marriage? Chapters often end on these or other urgent questions still hanging in the air, hopefully to be answered in the next. This is story-telling at its most skilled and experienced. Books for Keeps

Here are some background notes about this book. I have always loved the storytelling of Elizabeth Laird in books such as Secret Friends and The Lost Riders. I also highly recommend you search out Oranges in No Man's Land.

I would pair a House without walls with No Ballet shoes in Syria and The Night Diary.