Refugee: List 6

by Alan Gratz
Three young refugees — a Jewish boy fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939, a Cuban girl suffering under the Castro regime in 1994, and a Muslim boy trying to escape war-torn Syria in 2015 — make desperate journeys in search of freedom and safety.

This list covers pages 236–317 in the 2017 Scholastic edition.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6

Here is a link to our lists for Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz.
15 words 3242 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. faze
    disturb the composure of
    Air raids, shoot-outs, taxi holdups — nothing seemed to faze him anymore.
  2. jostle
    come into rough contact with while moving
    There were more shouts and screams, and before Mahmoud knew what was happening he and his family were caught up in the press of refugees trying to get across the border. Mahmoud was jostled from every side.
  3. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    For as much as he’d wanted to grow up, Josef wished now that he could join them. Be a little kid again, cheerfully oblivious to what was going on around him.
  4. mutiny
    engage in an open rebellion against an authority
    Ten men, Josef thought. A minyan.
    Ten Jews come together not to worship, but to mutiny.
  5. desist
    stop performing some action
    “Ostermeyer! No!” Captain Schroeder commanded. “Cease and desist. That’s an order.”
  6. fugue
    a musical form consisting of a repeated theme
    Theirs wasn’t a son cubano, with its triumphant finale; theirs was a fugue, a musical theme that was repeated again and again without resolution.
  7. elation
    a feeling of joy and pride
    She’d been put through the wringer — the elation of leaving Cuba, the exhaustion of the storm, the horror of Iván’s death, the relief at seeing the lights of Miami, the despair of running into the Coast Guard ship and knowing they would never get to el norte.
  8. bleary
    tired to the point of exhaustion
    Mahmoud’s breathing finally came back to something like normal, and he was able to sit up and open his bleary eyes.
  9. odyssey
    a long wandering and eventful journey
    This trip, this odyssey, was pulling his family apart, stripping them away like leaves from the trees in the fall.
  10. euphoria
    a feeling of great elation
    The St. Louis was throwing a party. Even bigger than the one it had thrown the night before they’d reached Cuba. This one had the euphoria of more than nine hundred people who had been at death’s door and were suddenly, miraculously, saved.
  11. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    Lito was crying now, distraught.
  12. conspire
    act in agreement and in secret towards a deceitful purpose
    Why had they taken them all the way to the Austrian border only to throw them in a detention center? It felt personal somehow. Like the whole country was conspiring to keep them from finding a real home.
  13. motivate
    give an incentive for action
    It was harder for her to pull when the waves kept lifting her, but the sight of the Coast Guard boat bearing down on them helped motivate her.
  14. bodega
    small shop selling groceries, especially in a Hispanic area
    Luis got work in a little bodega, and Amara in a dress shop, and once Amara became a US citizen she planned to become a Miami police officer.
  15. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    As Mahmoud shook the old man’s hand, he spotted a small, thin, ornate wooden box attached to the frame just outside the front door.
Created on Wed May 22 13:38:36 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Jun 17 14:39:54 EDT 2025)

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