Children’s Books to Celebrate Refugee Week

Bicycle

by Mevan Babakar (author), Patricia McCormick (author), and Yas Imamura (illustrator)

The true story of how a simple act of kindness changed a young refugee’s life – from award-winning author Patricia McCormick with Mevan Babakar.

For generations, Mevan and her family lived in their beloved Kurdistan. But when they are forced to flee by the Iraqi government, Mevan must leave everything behind. Her family travels from country to country in search of safety; and with each stop, Mevan feels more and more alone. Until … a stranger’s gift changes everything.

The Day War Came

by Nicola Davies (author) and Rebecca Cobb (illustrator)

A powerful and necessary picture book – the journey of a child forced to become a refugee when war destroys everything she has ever known.

Imagine if, on an ordinary day, war came. Imagine it turned your town to rubble. Imagine going on a long and difficult journey – all alone. Imagine finding no welcome at the end of it. Then imagine a child who gives you something small but very, very precious…

The Girl at the Front of the Class

by Onjali Q. Raúf (author) and Pippa Curnick (illustrator)

From Onjali Q. Rauf, the bestselling and award-winning author of The Boy at the Back of the Class, and award-winning illustrator Pippa Curnick, comes a moving picture book that helps young children understand and empathise with the refugee crisis, and shows the power that friendship, kindness and generosity can have.

My Name is Not Refugee

by Kate Milner

A touching, timely and tender exploration of refugees and migration for the youngest readers, this picture book offers a moving insight into the real journeys being made by children today.

A young boy discusses the journey he is about to make with his mother. They will leave their town, she explains, and it will be sad but also a little bit exciting. They will have to say goodbye to friends and loved ones, and that will be difficult. They will have to walk and walk and walk, and although they will see many new and interesting things, it will be difficult at times too.

Wishes

by Muon Thi Van (author) and Victo Ngai (illustrator)

Wishes tells the powerful, honest story about one Vietnamese family’s search for a new home on the other side of the world, and the long-lasting and powerful impact that makes on the littlest member of the family.

Told through the eyes of a young girl, this story chronicles a family’s difficult and powerful journey to pack up what they can carry and to leave their world behind, traveling to a new and unknown place in a crowded boat. Wishes tells a powerful and timely story in a gentle and approachable way for young children and their families.

Children of Swallow Fell

by Julia Green

The world’s in trouble. When war comes to the heart of the Italian city where Isabella lives with her family, everything changes. She makes the long journey with her dad to a safer place – the old house where he grew up in the north of England. Isabella must adapt to a completely different life. No shops, no electricity, no phone signal. No friends or neighbours – until she meets two ‘wild’ children. Rowan and Kelda live by themselves, hidden from the world, survivors of the sickness that swept through the valley. When Dad fails to return from a trip to find food, Isabella has to work out what to do and how to survive. Together, can the children build a new life, a life for the future? What do we really need for a happy life?

Choose Love

byPetr Horáček (author) and Nicola Davies (illustrator)

In this moving sequence of poems Nicola Davies’s text combines with the superbly evocative illustrations of Petr Horáček to provide insight into the real-life experiences of refugees forced to leave their homes and previous lives behind to face an unknown future.

Suffused with compassion and understanding, the work invites you to share in these stories in the hope of building greater awareness and empathy for the struggles faced by so many, and to choose love as our response.

When Stars Are Scattered

by Victoria Jamieson (author and illustrator), Omar Mohamed (author) and Iman Geddy (illustrator)

A heart-wrenching true story about life in a Kenyan refugee camp that will restore your faith in real-life happy endings.

Omar and his brother Hassan, two Somali boys, have spent a long time in the Dadaab refugee camp. Separated from their mother, they are looked after by a friendly stranger. Life in the camp isn’t always easy. The hunger is constant . . . but there’s football to look forward to, and now there’s a chance Omar will get to go to school . . .

The Power of Welcome: Real-life Refugee and Migrant Journeys

by Ramzee (author), Marie Bamyani (author), Ada Jusic (author and illustrator), Nadine Kaadan (author), and Sonya Zhurenko (author)

A powerful graphic novel exploring the struggle for survival of displaced people. With true stories from Ukraine, Somalia, Bosnia, Syria and Afghanistan, this moving book collects important tales about the real journeys of people forced from their homes by conflict. Somalia:‘It was a normal, boring day. I was playing videogames after homework when the first bomb fell.’Bosnia:‘One day, Mum took me to the local playground. A sniper shot at us. We couldn’t stay in Bosnia any more.’Ukraine:‘On the 24th of February, Mum woke me up by saying: ‘The war has begun.’

A House Without Walls

by Elizabeth Laird

Thirteen-year-old Safiya and her family have been driven out of Syria by civil war. Safiya knows how lucky she is – lucky not to be living in a refugee camp, lucky to be alive. But it’s hard to feel grateful when she’s forced to look after her father and brother rather than go back to school, and now that she’s lost her home, she’s lonelier than ever.

As they struggle to rebuild their lives, Safiya realizes that her family has always been incomplete and with her own future in the balance, it’s time to uncover the secrets that war has kept buried.

The Crossing

by Manjeet Mann

The sea carries our pain. The stars carry our future.

Natalie’s world is falling apart. She’s just lost her mum and her brother marches the streets of Dover full of hate and anger. Swimming is her only refuge.

Sammy has fled his home and family in Eritrea for the chance of a new life in Europe. Every step he takes on his journey is a step into an unknown and unwelcoming future.

A twist of fate brings them together and gives them both hope. But is hope enough to mend a broken world?

The Arrival

by Shaun Tan

What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown? This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all those who have made the journey. The Arrival has become one of the most critically acclaimed books of recent years, a wordless masterpiece that describes a world beyond any familiar time or place.