This paper focuses on a range of literary representations of children who endure displacement to see how fictional and non-fictional narratives shape the perception of refugees. Modern literature as a kind of cultural production can shed light on both the experiences of displaced children and the ways those experiences are perceived nowadays. Moreover, it can delineate how the author’s position and their having/lacking the experience of displacement influences the narrative. The critical optic of this paper seeks to unravel the various dimensions of the cultural representations of a refugee’s reality as created by modern American writer Alan Gratz in his novel Refugee and Malala Yousafzai in her collection We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World. Not only will it help to explore the similarities and contrast in emblematizing images but also demonstrate how the position from which we narrate and view the experiences of these children impacts the narratives and cultural representations. The paper touches upon children voicing and/or representing resilience or victimhood as well as everyday reality of navigating displacement, perilous journeys, prolonged liminality, borders, barriers, bureaucratic hurdles in search for a new home. By examining the similarities and differences of fictional and non-fictional representations of refugee children, this paper attempts to challenge the stereotypical perceptions surrounding refugee experience in mass culture and highlights the need for cultural sensitivity when engaging with refugee experiences.