Sometimes the hardest thing about reading non fiction
Is knowing that every word that you read is true
Knowing that every event that unfolds
Actually happened to someone for real

It is harder still when the words you read
Are straight from the mouth of a 12 year old girl
Living through a war

A child the same age as your own children
Living through the invasion of their country
The bombing of their city
The destruction of their home

“Attacking my home is the same as attacking a piece of me.I feel like my heart is being squashed.”

You Don’t Know What War Is
The Diary of a Young Girl From Ukraine
Is a powerful true story
Of the war in Ukraine
Through the eyes of a 12 year old girl

It is a brilliant book
A heartbreaking read
Made all the more poignant
Because our friends
Who came here as refugees briefly
Are now living through this
In their home city of Kyiv

It is hard to read of what is happening
How people, children, are feeling
It is hard to imagine the immediate
And ongoing upheaval of their lives

The uncertainty
The not knowing
The what, when, if, how

“Rivers of tears. I lay on the bed and, for the first time in my life, I just thought about how I really want to live.”

It is hard to hear through the voice of a child
The sounds of war
The sirens, the explosions
The sensations of war
Fear and anxiety
Shakes and shudders
The consequences of war
The pain and suffering
Confusion
Curiosity

Yeva Skalietska tells her story
Through the words of her diary
Messages sent to and
Received from friends
Newspaper headlines
Threads of conversations
With her family

Words are punctuated
With photographs
And raw emotion
As Yeva and her Granny
Leave their home
Flee their city
Their country

This is a hard hitting story
The war in Ukraine rumbles on
Yeva is the same age as my twins
Our friends remain in Kyiv
Living through the continued
Fears and dangers of war

And the people of Ukraine
Are not alone
Too many people
Too many children
Live with the fear and danger
Of conflict and war
Too many people
Too many children
Flee their homes
In fear of losing their lives

These stories
Are hard to read
But that is why we must read them
Why we must share them
Because these stories must be told
These voices must be heard

This story made me think
Of Anne Frank
And what life might have been like for her
In a time of social media
Would she have had more information?
More contact with her friends?
Or would a mobile signal have
Brought her death sooner?

This story also made me think of
Tom Palmer’s Resist
And the Dutch people
Living through Nazi occupation
How would social media
Instant messaging
Helped or hindered The Resistance?

As Yeva’s friends flee their homes
They keep in contact
As they head for Western Ukraine
For Poland
For Germany
Canada
UK
Hungary

They realise that they have
Become refugees
Leaving their homes
Seeking refuge
Sanctuary
Safety

As Yeva leaves her home
We see how her life
Is lived through the
Kindness of strangers
Reporters
Red Cross volunteers
Everyday citizens

Those acts of kindness
Lead Yeva and her Granny
To Ireland
To Dublin

Yeva and her Granny
Stay with a host family
The first thing Yeva mentions
Is the family dog
Which made me smile
As our Ukrainian friends
First question when they arrived
Was ‘Where is Cranberry?’
Granny’s cat

Reading about Yeva’s arrival
In Dublin
Did make me feel uncomfortable
When I compared it to the treatment
Of Sami and his family
In Boy, Everywhere

Kindness is not always extended
To everyone

Yeva’s story also reminds me
Of our Ukrainian friends
As they all share a love of
Harry Potter

It has helped me to understand
The conflict of emotions
Between enjoying lovely days
In a new safe place
And hearing horrific
Terrifying news from home

“Tears welled up in my eyes. I remembered how i cried as I prayed for my home to be spared from the bombs. I thought of Kharkiv and all the important things in it which have now been destroyed.”

While Yeva settles into school in Ireland
Her friends are still fleeing the war
As Yeva and her Granny find a house
To rent in Ireland
The war still continues in Ukraine
Yeva does not know if or when
She will ever return home to Kharkiv
There are so many children
Just like Yeva
All around the world
We don’t know how their stories will end

And that is the problem with non fiction
We do not always know how the story ends
We cannot guarantee that any ending
Will be a happy one
That is why these true stories
Are so very difficult to read
And it is why we must read them

Michael Morpurgo writes
A stunning forward to Yeva’s book
In it he says many powerful things
Including this …

“No fiction I could write about war can carry the same intensity or power as her first-hand account of the shattering effect of war on her life, on her family, her friends, her community, her country. Here is an insight into war as it happens to her, as the world falls about around her.”

We don’t know what war is
Unless we have lived through it
Like Yeva and so very many like her
And therefore
We owe it to them
To ourselves
To read and share their stories