OUTCASTS UNITED AUTHOR: WARREN ST. JOHN By: Jordan Ray

WARREN ST. JOHN  Born in Birmingham Alabama  Attended the Altamont School and furthered his education at Colombia University  He is an American author and journalist  He worked for the NY Times between 2002 and 2008  He has two novels: Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania and Outcasts United

SETTING  The novel takes place in America  However, most of the characters are not American they come from mostly Middle Eastern and African countries as they are adjusting to life in America

CLARKSTON, GEORGIA  Town of 7,200 people  Only 1.1 square miles  10 miles away from Atlanta  In the 1980’s and 1990’s Clarkston became the home of many refugees from all over the world  The refugees started to become an issue to the residents that were already living there.

THE NOVEL  The novel is about refugees coming from other countries do to troubling issues in their respective country.  They are coming to America for a new beginning although it is not as what they expect it to be.  There are resettlement agencies that are built in Clarkston  The refugees had a one way plane ticket to America and only showed with clothes that they were wearing.  The would only have government assistance for the first three months.  The main character is Luma, she is a Jordanian girl from a high profile family from Amman.

THE NOVEL  Luma attended college in America and chose to stay in America after that.  Luma has a very fierce mindset and is very inspiring.  In the novel she begins her coaching career in soccer at the American Community School as the JV’s head coach.  One day she goes grocery shopping and she sees refugees playing soccer behind the store and decides to join along.  She continues to go back and she realizes that these kids don’t have much so she came to a conclusion to start a soccer team for the refugees.  The refugees have many gang issues which hurts the team and several players where they are involved or they are picked on.

THE TEAM  The refugee soccer team also known as the “Fugees” were split up into three age groups.  The book doesn’t dwell that much on the older group where the U15’s were the most troubled and the U13’s were the most bonded group.  There are many issues with the U15’s that Luma is very frustrated with which causes her to cancel the season of the U15 team.  The team had many issues throughout the whole novel with playing fields and residents complaining.  They had to go to the mayor for better playing standards and it still took her forever to okay it.

THE TEAM  They had a really tough time being accepted in the community.  The rise of the team came as the residents were finally fed up with the refugees.  There was always constant complaining coming from the residents and Luma deemed it as completely unfair.  The team had early struggles but was able to pull it through in the end where they came across a huge loss.

U13

U15

U17

LUMA MEFFLEH

WARREN ST. JOHN

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