Today we have been exploring two beautiful, powerful books by Francesca Sanna.
The Journey is a book that takes your breath away no matter how many times you read it. This book speaks volumes about the experience of refugee families as they flee from persecution. What they sacrifice to survive. The life & memories they leave behind. The courage to give up everyone & everything they know to have a hope of starting again.
Before reading the book I told the children that we had to leave our home for a while and I gave them 5 minutes to pack a small rucksack. It was fascinating watching them choose items from around the house and explaining to each other what they were taking and why.
William got quite emotional as we talked about children having to do this for real. Doing this physical activity before reading the books had a huge, positive impact on my older children and their ability to empathise with refugee children around the globe.
They all asked me what Daddy and I would pack in our bags which led to a discussion about many men not being able to escape the fighting in conflicts and helped the children better understand the mother in Francesca Sanna’s The Journey.
Francesca Sanna shows the power & strength of refugee mothers who have to encourage their children & reassure them that though what they are doing feels so wrong they have no choice if they want to live. This book shows the courage of families who have to flee knowing not what they are running into.
The Journey helps us to empathise & try to understand the horror children have to go through to reach a place of safety, the enormity of the obstacles they have to overcome & the relentlessness of their struggles to reach safe shores.
This book will grab your heart and pound your head and leave you thinking what can I do? How can I play my part and help these families who just want to be safe? What can I do to help mothers just like me who want to protect their children?
Me and My Fear is about a little girl who has moved to a new country and is starting a new school. We wonder if perhaps this is the same little girl from The Journey?
The little girl in the story has a tiny friend called fear. A little ghost-like creature who goes everywhere with her, keeping her safe. But being in a new country and the prospect of starting a new school is making the girl’s fear grow. She is not just keeping her safe anymore but stopping her from doing things that she would very much like to do. Her fear is stopping her from going outside and exploring, from making new friends and trying new foods. The girl is left lonely and left out. She becomes very sad and struggles to eat and sleep as fear takes over everything.
But then one day a little boy talks to her and together they paint pictures. As the little girl sonnets with her new friend Fear begins to shrink. When the girl realises that the friend has a fear too her Fear shrinks a little more. The little girl learns that talking to others, playing with others, painting and drawing are all things that can make fears and worries go away, even if just for a little while. The little girl soon sees that a little fear is healthy and does indeed keep us safe. She sees that everyone has something they are afraid of or something that worries them. We are all scared sometimes and that is okay.
The children and I talked a lot today about fear and anxiety. We talked about how we feel when we are frightened, how we act when we are worried. We named the things that scare us and worry us. We shared our fears and worries, and it felt really good to do that. The children also all created their own Fear based on the super cute characters in the story.
We also talked a lot about the little boy in the story and how his small act of kindness made a huge difference for the little girl. He reached out to her and helped her to feel like she belonged.
We can all be more like that little boy. Kind and welcoming to everyone, from everywhere, always.