I Needed a Neighbour

by Patricia St. John

The African refugee camp is crowded with sick and starving people. Two new arrivals, a teenage girl Mehrit and her little brother wait their turn. What will happen to them? Will they ever find their parents again? A moving story of a family on a famine-stricken country.

Genres: Christian Fiction, Christian, Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction

Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Patricia Mary St. John spent 27 years as a dedicated missionary to North Africa - and was also a prolific children's writer. Her books are loved and treasured around the world; some have been turned into stirring films. Gripping adventures which cover real life issues are her hallmark.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this with my 9 y.o. daughter. It’s the sad story of a family displaced by civil war in Africa. Lots of suffering and death but also highlights the power of love and faith.

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good book

[K8 U · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harrowing to the point that I could not finish it. Children must have been made of stronger stuff in Patricia St John’s day!

[Werka Wróbelka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Książka pełna śmierci i cierpienia, wydarza się tu tragedia za tragedią i moim zdaniem jest tego zdecydowanie za dużo jak na książkę dla dzieci

[Esther Filbrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story, even though it's quite sad. Made me think--how would I respond if I was in a situation like this? Highly recommended.

[Bethan Lycett · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

Having read a couple of Patricia St John's other books with my 7 year old (Friska My Friend, The Other Kitten), I was interested to read this book which is described as being age 12-14.

The story revolves around Mehrit (14) and her brother Tekla (4) as they fight for their survival amidst a backdrop of famine, imprisonment and refugee camps.

This is not a book for the faint hearted, and so I understand the 12-14 age suggestion, although younger kids may cope when reading alongside a parent, and 12-14's may struggle depending on how sensitive they are.

St John doesn't shy away from the hard realities of the experiences of a refugee, and I applaud her for that. Her years as a missionary nurse clearly gave her many real stories to draw on.

The story doesn't have a picture perfect ending, we lose a number of friends and family members along the way, and it isn't all tied up in a bow, but that's true of real life.

I can't say I enjoyed the book purely due to the bleakness of it, but I did feel compelled to keep reading, and I think it would be an important book to help young people understand the reality of life in a war zone or area of famine.

What I will say is that considering the book is 40 years old, I didn't feel like it was old fashioned, this could have been the experiences of those today in various places around the world.

Spoilers
The book opens in a refugee camp as a bus of new arrivals are reviewed and treated. A baby dies, and sets the tone for the whole book. Mehrit and Tekla are introduced.

We then go back in time to the start of Mehrit and Teklas story: their parents are taken from a local village against their will to be 'resettled' in a work camp.

Mehrit and Tekla then set out to find their grandparents in another village as they have no food and the drought/famine is worsening.

The grandparents go with Mehrit and Tekla to seek out a better chance of survival as their own village is about to run out of supplies.

Both grandparents die along the way, along with others travelling in their party.

We pick up the story of the parents who are being worked as slaves in a labour camp. They make a plan to escape to try and get back to their children. The mother is killed in the escape.
The father wants to lie down and die along with his wife, but remembers her final words to find the children.

We follow the father (Tesfai) as he struggles on and is given food and shelter along the way by 'neighbours'. He is then able to help out a truck driver who has fallen ill by driving for him, and they strike up an unlikely friendship and begin to work together.

Mehrit and Tekla continue on their journey to find a refugee camp where they can find food and water. Tekla becomes very ill and on the brink of death, but recovers (thankfully, because at this point I wasn't sure who was going to make it to the end of the story).

Tesfai encounters a church and finds faith in Jesus which helps him find purpose in his pain.

A delivery of supplies to a refugee camp means the father Tesfai spots his son Tekla and they are reunited. (It's slightly more dramatic than that, but I won't spoil it too much!).

The family are reunited, but the dad leaves them at the refugee camp while he earns enough to make a life for them.

[Alayna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great read to compare what we have since learned about effectively telling these kinds of stories to non-impacted audiences.

At the risk of sounding hypercritical of a children's book, I choose to be honest about this one. I will preface by saying I chose this on a whim based on the cover, had I known the genre and target audience I might have judged this more charitably.

The first chapter set the tone perfectly for this book--textbook case of poor suffering brown people in the Global South dependent on missionary aid from the West. St. John did a wonderful job of describing the brutal suffering surrounding and following the main family. Though sometimes I thought it was laid on rather thick, I chalked it up to my naivete about the horrors of war and displacement. Later, in the climactic sermon delivered to us through the father of the family and a preacher, I understood that these events were not included in an effort for realism but instead to drag the father and readers to a place of despair that only God (the evangelical Christian one) could rescue him/us from.

This book strikes the perfect balance between denigrating the faith of the African characters--implicitly Catholic/Orthodox North Africans--in terms of the stability and their understanding of their beliefs AND of positioning them as incidentally superior to spoiled Westerners by their suffering and continuous reconversions as they experience famine and civil unrest in an ambiguous, unnamed place.

While I choose to believe that Patricia St. John was a loving woman with a beautiful spirit oriented towards serving others as her faith prescribed, this book is very much a product of her time and environment.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two-thirds of this story (novella?) are so unrelentingly dark that the weak, underdeveloped resolution can't possibly balance it, although I appreciated the author didn't go for a cheesy, unrealistically happy ending. I also liked that the aid of the Western characters, although needed and timely, isn't the key to the characters' happiness, but just one of the many instances of "neighbors" near and far helping each other through a hard time. Having said that, the nurse Emma character felt entirely superfluous for amount of attention the story gave her, and I can only imagine she was a stand-in for St. John herself. Opening the story with her perspective was a bizarre choice, although it at least assured me the children would live long enough to make it back to her.

[Adie · Rating 5 out of 5]

written in 1950, the beauty and the horror of this book lies in its haunting relevancy for today. This is a book worth reading aloud to or listening with your children and family. Real descriptions of the suffering without gratuitous detail, real connections between peoples, real hope, and a real call to compassion, love, and service. You will weep and rejoice with the characters, knowing that truth lies within the fictional story. And hopefully, you will become a good neighbor.

[Brianna Smith Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Needed a Neighbour tells the equally heartbreaking and heart lifting of a refugee family torn apart by circumstances, but found by the Father who cares for each of them. In typical Patricia St John fashion, it does not cut any corners when describing the hardship each member of this family faces as they encounter violence, death, disease, and hunger, but it also beautifully displays the hope that can come from Jesus...even in and through the difficult circumstances.

[celina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book I laid my eyes on(not that it wasn’t good) - I had a hard time finishing it but at least it got me out of a reading slump. I liked it. It helps you see things through the eyes of oppressed and value your freedom. Led me to reading “As long as the Lemon Trees grow” which I highly recommend.

[Emma Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short book I read so many times as a child and I think it is one of those books that opens your eyes to the horror as well as the beauty of the world and one that changes your whole perspective. It makes you wonder what truly matters in life through heart stopping plot and tearful tragedies along the way, exemplifying the fragility and brutality and most of all hope of humanity.

[Carrie Dehart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family read aloud. This was a hard but good read about what can happen in a time of drought and famine in Africa. Has a redemptive ending, but a lot of sorrow along the way. Created good discussions with our children.

[Eilidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening and sad to read of the lives of refugees, but well written and kept me wanting to read to find out what happened.

[Beth Hutchings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreakingly beautiful

[Jodi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting. Slow.

[Renskedb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dit boekje moest ik lezen voor mijn Engels literatuurlijst.
Een mooi boek, maar ik zou het normaal gesproken niet lezen.

[Anita Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very emotional telling of a family separated during a famine. Young Mehret's parents have left to seek food. It's been several days & no word. She leaves to travel to the grandparents. Rebel soldiers attack. The family must fight against hunger, the elements, and sickness, to unite as one.

[Sarah Loft · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hard and heartbreaking story about an African family who experience circumstances that force them to become refugees.

I started this story with my 10yo, but ended up finishing on my own as it was too much for her. Themes include: death, survival, famine, human trafficking, and overcoming adversity.

[Emma Dehoog · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this one in French and would recommend it in any language. St.John gives a human touch to a crisis situation that remains current.

[Corrin Woodbrooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harrowing. A very important read.
Written almost like a news story in my opinion