When the sky falls
When stars are scattered
Remember …
Everyone comes from somewhere
Everyone has a past
Everyone is somewhere first
Everyone is somewhere last
As millions of families flee their homes in Ukraine and around the world children, particularly older children, will see things and hear things. We all do our best to shelter our children from hurt and from evil but sometimes they have questions.
My older children want to know about wars in the past, they want to know what is happening in our world right now and why, they want to help the millions of refugees who are searching for a safe place to call home. Books give us a safe context in which to talk to our children about conflict, displacement, refugees and migration. These are some of the books that have helped me to understand. Stories and fact books that I have shared with my older children.
Not everyone will want to share these books with their children and that is fine. But for many of us books are the tools we turn to when words are hard to find, when subjects are sensitive and when we know that there are voices and stories that deserve to be heard. They need to be heard.
“If children are old enough to be bombed, they are old enough to read about it.”
Deborah Ellis