Images we see on the news and the front pages of desperate people in desperate circumstances are difficult to comprehend, but imagine how much more confusing and disturbing they will seem to children.
Two new books aim to introduce young readers to the refugee crisis, using pictures and simple words to tackle the subject.
Children’s book illustrator Kate Milner decided to write My Name Is Not Refugee after driving home with her daughter, who works in a school. She told her about how pupils had been asking questions about the crisis.
“They didn’t understand what was being discussed in the news,” Milner says. “I asked myself if there was anything I could do and by the end of the journey the book was clear in my head. It’s a story which asks children from a safe, comfortable background to think about what it must be like to leave your home and make a journey into the unknown.”
Another book, Where Will I Live? is written by Rosemary McCarney, who is Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and uses photographs taken by the UNHCR of refugees in Africa, the Middle East and across Europe. Proceeds from Where Will I Live? will be donated to refugee children’s programmes around the world.
Here is an extract:
