Honouring refugee stories in Refugee Week and beyond

Over the past three years, and most especially in the run up to every Refugee Week, I have had the immense honour of speaking to thousands of readers little and big in classrooms, libraries and festivals across the country. All of them hungry for one thing: to listen to stories they know they need to be told.

Stories which are real, painful, eye-opening, humane, tragic and ever-hopeful, which centre on the plight of over 80 million people on this planet who, right at this very moment, are searching for the very same gifts so many of us take for granted: ​‘peace’, ​‘safety’, ​‘home’, ​‘family’. Gifts they no longer possess thanks to geo-political decisions, actions, events and unrests that have nothing to do with them.

In short, stories about refugees.

Refugee: a word so often mired in racisms, fears and one-sided, negative suppositions and imagery, that it will take a world of authors, illustrators, poets, and storytellers to unpack the baggage it travels with, and unpackage it in the light of human beings in need of humanity.

Which thankfully, is exactly what is being done and has been done, by an army of storytellers in all our book worlds, past and present.

From Paddington Bear, Superman, and the Pevensie children in the Narnia Chronicles, to Harry Potter and Willie Beech in Goodnight Mr Tom; from Judith Kerr, Benjamin Zephaniah, Shaun Tan and Michael Rosen to Andrea Davis Pinkney, Nicola Davies, AM Dassu, Catherine Bruton and Ele Fountain and a world of so many more brilliant authors and creations, our children have access to shelves of stories which centre on the story of fleeing persecution, searching for better worlds and peoples, and safety from the unfathomable.

And they will need more. More stories that highlight truths – however hard they may be, so readers can begin to aspire to the roles they will need to play in the coming decades to humanise those who have been dehumanised, and hold out hands that are currently being held back.

Which is why, when award-winning former BookTrust Writer-in-Residence Sita Brahmachari approached me with the opportunity of storyboarding an animation about the plight of refugee children, I couldn’t help but cry out, ​‘Yes please!’

The animation, set to a song by Sting called Inshallah (the Arabic for ​‘If it be God’s Will’) and entitled Footsteps on the Wind (see the trailer here), sources its ingredients from Sita’s piercing refugee-centred stories Artichoke Hearts and Red Leaves, and my own The Boy at the Back of the Class. In short, it is a dream project, centred on the hopes that it will help teachers and families around the world, understand even more deeply the stories they may already be reading about what refugee children are being made to endure.

In the midst of this collaboration, Sita and I inevitably began to share stories and experiences of our refugee aid works and book loves. To mark the end of this precious week, here are her three favourite refugee-centred reads, followed by mine.

After all, refugee stories and their authors aren’t just for Refugee Week: they’re for life. Many, many lives.

Which is why we must go on, reading…

A diverse and moving anthology featuring many children’s and YA authors exploring refugee experience. Aimed at children and adult readers alike, it features work from Michael Morpurgo, Eoin Colfer, Judith Kerr, S.F. Said, Kit de Waal and Simon Armitage amongst so many others. A crucial addition to any bookshelf.

This YA novel is a must-read because it really is the author’s story, and one of incredible resilience and hope. An inspiration to all.

This is extraordinary storytelling at its best. Laird expertly brings the lived details of a refugee’s experiences to life with so much heart, humanity, vast experience and empathy.

Because it’s Michael. And because to dip in and out of these timeless poems, is to dip in and out of truths packed into sentences and stanzas that strike the heart and imprint forever.

Want to understand just what life is like in a refugee camp for children? And wrap heads around the fact that sadly, Syria is not the only place from which children are having to flee? Then look no further. Omar and his brother Hassan from Somaliland, are here to open eyes, understandings, and hearts. Reaching the last page and understanding that this is a true story, will have you reaching out to hug your nearest human too.

I was gifted this incredible book – written entirely in verse – to mark Refugee Week by one of my team members in Calais, and to say I fell in love with the character of Jude from line one is an understatement. A rhythmic chronicling of a child’s journey, as she leaves behind her beloved father and brother in Syria to find safety and her sense of heritage and self in America, it is a deeply stunning read to have on any shelf on any week of the year.