This book would be appropriate for primary and intermediate readers with a content warning for descriptions of war
This book is about a young boy named Viktor whose family must flee their home during war. When coming back home his house is destroyed but the fish he released in his pond are alive which is a sign of hope.
This book would be useful in teaching about why people must leave their home countries due to war and teaching about symbols, fish = hope.

Really wonderful book about war -- about impending war, fleeing war, spending time in camps and returning. Beautiful, hopeful, inexpressibly sad, and appropriate even for very young readers. Inspiring story for older readers, too, and I really like how Bunting manages to keep it nonspecific to a particular war or a particular place. ( )

The story of Viktor and his family during the Bosnian War. After his father leaves to fight with the Liberation Army, his family must decide how long they can safely remain in their village. After watching many refugees pass their home, they decide they too must leave. Seeing that the only way two fish, a refugee left with them, might survive, Viktor slips them, Gleam and Glow, into their pond. When they return, after months in a refugee camp, pretty much everything is destroyed - except for their pond teaming with beautiful fish. ( )

Based on a true story of a Bosnian family forced to flee their home during the civil war, Bunting tells about the horrors of war and the hope that can sometimes come as she tells her readers the tale of a little girl who, before fleeing her home with her family, had to leave two little goldfish behind in their pond. When she comes back home, although the land is destroyed, the pond is brimming with shimmering goldfish.

Summary: Viktor, Marina, and their mother are forced to move out of their home after the escalation of the Bosnian War after Viktor and Marina's father left home to fight with the Liberation Army. Before they move out of their home, a moving man gives the family two glowing fish, which Marina names Gleam and Glow. Before they move out of the house, Viktor, Marina, and Mother place Gleam and Glow into their family pond, where they thrive. After their family reunites after the war, they come back to their land and see that the fish have thrived and multiplied--a sign of hope.