Posts Tagged with refugees

Escape: One day we had to run – Spotlight blog tour

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Mini-book Review: Escape: One Day we had to run by Ming and Wah, and illustrated by Carmen Vela

I was delighted to invited by Lantana publishing to take part in the Escape: One day we had to run blog tour.  This picture book explores why people around the world are forced to flee their homes. It takes a unique angle on the topic. Choosing 12 words and a personal story to go with each word. Each is presented on a double page spread with bright and bold illustrations, which combine with powerful effect.

I love the range of stories included. There are examples from different time periods and places in the world. It includes: Syria, Climate Refugees fleeing Pacific Islands, a long-distance runner escaping Eritrea, Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland and someone escaping the Cultural Revolution in China.

This book will help broaden the readers understanding of why people have to flee their homes, and help them to see the individual stories behind the headlines. It provides plenty to discuss, and is likely to prompt further research. Highly recommend for 9 to 80 years.

 

Spotlight: Blog Tour

The publisher asked us to choose a person to spotlight for the Blog Tour. I ended up choosing two people. Read on to find out why.

 

Flee 2007 Ioane Teitota left the Pacific Islands for New Zealand

I wanted to feature Ioane’s story for several reasons. Firstly, it’s the first time I have come across environmental and climate reasons for a person fleeing their country in a children’s book.  In Ioane’s case rising sea levels were destroying the Pacific Island he lived on.

Secondly, when I looked into his story, I realised it had taken him a 13-year struggle to get official Refugee status. Because until recently environmental and climate reasons were not recognised as qualifying criteria which forced people to leave their homes.

In January 2020 Ioane Teitota and his family took their case to the United Nations Human Refugee Committee. It became a landmark case in the rights of people fleeing their homes for environmental or climate change reasons. Shortly, afterwards Jacinda Arden established a special status for a small number of ‘Climate Refugees’ from the Pacific Islands and Ioane and his family were granted the right to stay in New Zealand. This is another example of the forward thinking and compassionate leadership of New Zealand’s president Jacinda Arden.

 

Fly – Ivo Zdarsky Czechoslovakia to Austria 1984

 

I chose Ivo’s story because it has always interested me the extra-ordinary lengths a few individuals went to escape Soviet Russia and/or the Eastern bloc during the Cold War. Ivo Zdarsky in 1984 did something very brave he built his own light aircraft and flew it across the border to Austria.

Another reason for choosing this example was to highlight the economic benefits refugees can bring to the new county they settle in. Ivo was helped by a refugee group to emigrate to the Unite States. Where he eventually built a successful aircraft propeller business called Ivoprop. I decided to do a bit more research about Ivo and was fascinated to find out more about what he went on to do next. A story which will interest many young people.

I also hope that by spotlighting this story readers will be encouraged to look up some of the different ways people escaped the Soviet Bloc or from East to West Germany (which is also featured in the book).

To watch a video about Ivo Zdarsky’s life click here (scroll to bottom of article)

 

Escape: Once Day we had to Run is available to purchase in all good bookshops from 6th May in UK and from 4th May in USA and Canada.

purchase from me at Readers that Care for £11.49, free postage to Mainland UK. Click here. 
You at also purchase direct from Lantana publishing, click here. 

 

 

Exploring immigrant children’s experiences in Britain through comparing two fictional stories.

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The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan 12+ years
Nadine Dreams of Home by Bernard Ashley 8+ years (reading age 7)

 

This is the fourth and final post of my global empathy posts focusing on stories that could help to build an understanding of immigrants, immigration and our global connections. I consider two stories of children’s experiences shortly after they arrived in Britain. Kasienka is a 13 year old from Poland. Nadine (primary school age) has fled from Goma. It struck me that the setting in Britain may make it easier for children to identify with them.

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan is a story written as a set of poems. I found this very powerful, particularly at communicating feelings and emotion. Nadine Dreams of Home by Bernard Ashley is one of Barrington Stokes shorter reads for 8 to 12 year olds. I love Barrington Stokes commitment to producing ‘super readable’ books with tinted page, clear readable fonts, and text levels set to certain reading ages. But, stories like Nadine Dreams of Home are so great that they should be shared. Both, stories deserve a place in every library (including in the adult section!). I nearly compared another book with Sarah Cossan’s story. But, when I read Bernard Ashley’s story I realized that the two books would be great together. It fascinated me how I immediately started looking for similarities between the two girls lives and how by doing so I felt I understood each one better. Each girl’s story enhanced the other. I will now highlight some of the similarities.

Firstly, both girls arrive in Britain, with their mum, but without their fathers, which as they express in their own words meant ‘their families were incomplete’. Kasienka came to England with her mum from Poland, looking for her missing father. Nadine, her mum and brother left war torn Goma (in the Congo) leaving her father behind in the hands of the rebels. Both authors have managed to convey  well the emotions and feelings of each child as they grapple with a new school, new life and new country.

Secondly, both children struggle at first with understanding their new language of English. I love how this is captured in the poem of Kasienka’s First Day:

“So what’s your name dear? Mrs Warren asks,

And I’m glad because I was afraid she had mistaken

Me for someone called Dear,

And that I would have to

Respond to that name

For ever. “

p10 The Weight of Water Sarah Crossan

Thirdly, it is interesting how technology is brought into each story, and used to resolve some of their issues. Kasienka’s mum uses a computer to search for her missing husband. Nadine’s classmate helps her to find a picture of her beloved Goma on a computer in the library. Then memories come flooding back of what she has left and her concerns for her father’s safety.

“In front of Nadine was a page of unreadable writing, but what grabbed her eye was a picture. A picture she knew.

A picture of Goma! There was no mistaking it – a scene of banana trees by Lake Kiviu and, in the background, the great Cow Herd mountain. “

p17-18 Nadine Dreams of Home: Bernard Ashley

Fourthly, both girls find ways to deal with their unfamiliar worlds and the emotions and uncertainties in their lives. For Nadine it is the safe haven of the weekly trip to the library, where she can view a picture of Goma, which helps her to feel connected to what she has lost. For Kasienka through swimming, she’s connected to her past (her daddy taught her to Swim) and it also gives her hope. Through swimming she makes a new friend, who becomes her boyfriend, and it’s also a way for her to release her emotions.

It is really powerful how many of Kaienka’s and Nadine’s experiences are similar to other children. In fact some British children will identify much in common. Themes include: finding your way around a new school, being misunderstood, bullies and bullying, absent or distracted parents, and that realisation that no matter how bad things get there are ways forward and people to help.

There is plenty for discussion in looking at what is the same and what is different. A key difference is Kasienka and her family are immigrants and Nadine is a refugee. In Brexit Britain, where children are receiving a lot of mixed messages both stories could be really valuable in building empathy and understanding.

Whilst writing this I noticed a blog post  by That Boy Can Teach @thatboycanteach  In which he and the book he referred to Reading Reconsidered (1) talked about the value of paired text’s. In this context they were talking about the concept of ‘embedding non-fiction’ by paring a non fiction book with a fiction book (2) Benefits of doing this include: helping to provide context and build understanding, and that what you absorb from both texts goes up. In conclusion to his post he points out:

“Pairing two fiction texts can be powerful in many ways as mentioned above, particularly if both stories are based on true events.” (2)

Which I found was very much the case in reading these two stories, which are fictional but based on real children’s experiences.

* (1)  Reading Reconsidered: A practical guide to rigorous reading instruction by Lemov, Driggs, Woolway: 2016.

*(2) ‘Teaching Reading: Pairing Non-Fiction with Fiction’ on the http://thatboycanteach.blogspot.co.uk

Please note: Sarah Crossan’s book is a young adult title and therefore may not be appropriate to use in a primary classroom. However, I think children aged 10 year and above would really appreciate much of the story and the language too. One way round this would be to use some of the poems, which could work provided they were kept in sequential order.

Dindy and the Elephant by Elizabeth Laird and A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

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9781447286042Dindy and the Elephant    ALongWalkToWater

These are two children’s books that really make you think. One is set in British Colonial India just before Independence. The other in rural Sudan, where it begins during the civil war in the mid 1980’s. The style and the way they are written are very different. They both presented me with a problem in reviewing them because the later parts of both these stories make them truly special. So if you notice there something is missing that’s because there is! To find out what you will need to read them!

Dindy and the Elephant is one of the best books I have read. It’s the first story I have read by Elizabeth Laird. I will be reading more! It has all the elements of a great story: adventure, pace, surprise and family drama, whilst seamlessly integrating this with it’s setting in British Colonial India. Beautifully written it makes you feel like you are right there both in the tea plantations and in the house. The illustrations by Peter Bailey perfectly capture the story and the glossary at the end  is a great addition.

The story is written from the perspective of a 9 year old girl called Dindy. When she and her younger brother go outside their home and into the tea planation, they get more than they bargained for. Nikhil their Aya’s son and a few others come to their rescue. Some of my favorite parts of the story are the conversation between Nikhil and Dindy. In which Dindy begins to discover there is more to her beloved India than she realized. Then her brother starts shouting, and puts his foot in it, in the way small children do. Yet in the tensions in pre-Independence India there is more at stake. During the story Dindy manages to apologies for her brother and tries to let Nikhil know she respects him and doesn’t think like ‘other’ British.

Whilst reading this story I had a sense of déjà vu, as if I had been there before. Then I realized it reminded me of watching the film Gandhi as a teenager, and more significantly the BBC Drama Jewel in the Crown. Elizabeth Laird’s book vividly conjures up the world so well captured by this drama. It is a masterful piece of story telling which also gives valuable insights into British Colonial India. It has also occurred to me post the EU Referendum in Britain that there are some very interesting conversations  this book could prompt about ‘Independence’ and attitudes to ‘others’.

‘” Let him fight his own battles’….’Look at him! He can’t wait to grow up and be like his daddy…He can’t wait to take all our money out of our country!’ “

A Long Walk to Sudan by Linda Sue Park is written in dual narrative from the perspective of 2 children. Part of the book tells the story of Nya, her daily trips to fetch water and her families struggle to get by. Her story opens in 2008. A larger part of the book is the story of Salva. It begins in 1985 during the civil war in Sudan. One day war comes to Salava’s village whilst he and the other boys are at school, they are forced to flee for their lives. The story then follows his long walk across Sudan to the Ethiopian border and safety. Along the way he makes friends and connections and together they keep each other alive. Along the journey he wonders whether he will ever see his parents or brothers and sisters again. It is at times both heart wrenching and brutal, but ultimately hopeful.

The style of this book took a bit of getting used to. For some children the dual narrative may make it more difficult to follow. It is not as descriptive as Elizabeth Laird’s story. You get a partial picture of the landscape and what it was like to live in the respective time periods. Having said that some of what it describes is etched in my memory. For example the night they spent on an island in the middle of the Nile. At dusk the fisherman that lived there disappeared into the protection of their nets:

“only a few moments later, mosquito’s rose up from the water….Huge dark clouds of them appeared, their high-pitched whining filling the air.”

This part of the story is made eve more poignant by what proceeds and follows it.

The power of this story is as much in what it leaves out as in what it says. As a child you do not see or understand everything and that is cleverly captured. For educators this book offers some interesting writing possibilities. For example: in telling the story the children do not tell or the story of other characters or by finding out about the landscape features of Sudan and describing them or even mapping them.

 

The Journey by Francesca Sanna (published by Flying Eye books)

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JourneyFP copy

 

The Journey is an amazing and important picture book by author and illustrator Francesca Sanna. It tells from a refugee story from a chid’s perspective. A girl and her family are forced to flee their homes by war. The story tells of their difficult journey to safety. The honesty with which it portrays the darkness of their experience and emotions such as: loss, despair, fear is breathtaking. It deals with a theme which is all around us, and has such a huge significance today.

It makes clever use of colour and illustrations to reflect changing emotions and circumstances. Orange hues are used for hope, and they are the colour of the car at the start of their journey and the train towards the end. Blackness represents the darkest of moments. And there is none darker than:

And one day the war took my father

The blackness conveys what words alone could not, and the orange of hope on subsequent pages propels you forward.

I had an interesting discussion with a friend about The Journey. We were in agreement that it is a book that should be in every school library. But, we could not quite decide if there was a little too much darkness. The darkness in the first part of this story is what makes it so powerful and I would not have it any other way. Then they arrive at the sea and colour comes back into the pictures and there is hope. Then on their boat journey fear comes back again. It was the picture below that got us thinking.

Journeyboat

Some questions we asked were:
What is the effect on the reader from going from a place of darkness to hope and then to be plunged back into darkness again? Would this be too much for some children?  What would have been the effect on the reader if instead this page was mainly light and warm hopeful colours with a smaller amount of black? Would the story be the same?

These are questions worth thinking about when sharing this book with children. The recent events of the EU referendum vote in Britain have sharpened my focus. Having thought about the picture I realised it would have been odd if Francesca Sanna had represented this part of the journey in any other way. The sad reality is that refugee journeys on boats are dangerous and they must have many fears both real and imagined of what they may face at the other end. Furthermore some children will have heard in the news about these difficult boat crossings and children dying. I think the breathtaking honesty of this story will resonate with many children, and especially older children who are beginning to take note of the world we live in. Aside from its key theme of refugees: a families flight from war to safety, there are also many powerful life messages. The journey from an awful place to somewhere that has the potential to be good can be difficult and up and down (get better then worse again) but ultimately hopeful.

Journeyend

There is also a second and beautiful story in this book. Where in the later stages of the story the girl and her family are joined by migratory birds flying alongside them. Then there is a beautiful scene at the end of them flying with these birds, into a new and more hopeful future. This last page opens up so many other topics that could be explored.

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Children’s books which could help build global empathy and understanding

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How we interact with the world around us has always been something which has interested me. Political events in Britain in 2016 and their aftermath have made me realise not everyone understands the migrant or immigrant experience and that children’s books can have an important role in building global empathy and understanding. Featured below are 5 books that can help children and adults explore these issues. Each is written from a child’s perspective. The stories deal with complex issues, and are not afraid to deal with traumatic and difficult situation’s, but in a sensitive way that the very best of children’s authors know how to do. Despite the sometimes difficulties circumstances the children and their families face they provide hope of the ability for children to survive, and the capacity for humans to adapt and change, such a vital message.

This selection of children’s books to help build global empathy and understanding about refugees experiences and other ways we are all connected include: a picture book, a story written in prose and chapter books at different reading levels. They are all shorter stories, proving that stories that really make you think don’t have to be long ones!

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