Smiling for Strangers — Gaye Hicyilmaz

When her hiding place is no longer safe, twelve-year-old Nina Topic has no choice. If she is to survive the war, she must escape ravaged Sarajevo altogether. Believing that all her family and friends are now dead, Nina has one hope left - that a mysterious former acquaintance of her mother's who lives in far-off England will be willing to help. As a stowaway aboard a truck in an aid convoy, Nina begins the dangerous journey away from her homeland, a journey on which she must learn how to rely on strangers she wouldn't otherwise trust, in order to have a chance of putting the past behind her and starting a new life.