Essentially, the story is about a normal day breaking and a child going to school. Then the noise of war and the destruction and desolation that envelopes the child begins.
The fear, desolation, desperation of the child who loses so much and who is caught up in the escaping mechanism of the refugees and their lost existence.
While exceptionally well written and illustrated, I have doubts about the use of this story with the young child to whom it might be read (it is a picture book) or to the young readers who might select it to read to themselves. Is the darkness of this story too intense for a child? Of course, a child on the edge of a war torn existence will identify with it and comprehend. But a child in an area that has not been touched by the ravages of war? I think not.
I can see this story expanded and written for the teen or young adult, and then the darkness of the story of enveloping war could be used as a tenable means for them to commiserate with the plight of people in areas torn asunder by war.
Still, perhaps it has a place in a library for young children. I just think care in sharing it with the very young child should be exercised so as not to plant seeds of anxiety.
About the book: A moving, poetic narrative and child-friendly illustrations follow the heartbreaking, ultimately hopeful journey of a little girl who is forced to become a refugee.
The day war came there were flowers on the windowsill and my father sang my baby brother back to sleep.
Imagine if, on an ordinary day, after a morning of studying tadpoles and drawing birds at school, war came to your town and turned it to rubble. Imagine if you lost everything and everyone, and you had to make a dangerous journey all alone. Imagine that there was no welcome at the end, and no room for you to even take a seat at school. And then a child, just like you, gave you something ordinary but so very, very precious. In lyrical, deeply affecting language, Nicola Davies’s text combines with Rebecca Cobb’s expressive illustrations to evoke the experience of a child who sees war take away all that she knows.
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DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Candlewick Press, to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own, alone, and are freely given.
