This heartwarming picturebook tells the tale of a girl who sets sail from her fishing village to explore the wonders of the world. In a small boat that is ‘scruffy and scratched, but as strong as can be,’ the girl journeys ‘on the glittering sea, humble and quiet but brave as can be.’ Each night the other villagers watch her return home empty-handed and ask her ‘what did you get?’ But the brave little girl just smiles.
Roohi’s grandfather, Neeka Baba, is a master player of the rabab, a traditional stringed instrument from Pakistan. She loves listening to him play with a clap-de-clap-clap rhythm and hearing the songs of her ancestors. Roohi takes daily lessons from Neeka Baba, and dreams of playing just like him at her school’s Eid concert. But when Neeka Baba falls ill, Roohi must continue on her own.
When Clara and her family are forced to leave their home, they must undertake a long journey, through jungle, across rivers and over mountains. Through moving text and beautiful illustrations, this picturebook touches on the reality of refugee journeys through a child’s eyes.
In the middle of the night, three unusual strangers appear outside Mr and Mrs Li’s house. They are blue, oddly shaped, and their ‘car’ has crash landed in the garden – but make no mistake, they ‘are DEFINITELY human.’ So, Mr Li ‘does what kind humans do’ and offers them shelter for the night and helps them fix their ‘car’. A hilarious picturebook about the importance of showing kindness to strangers.
When Olive welcomes Ana into her home, she finds it difficult to understand why she is so sad. The girls don’t speak the same language, but as they play and draw, Olive learns why Ana had to flee her home and what she has left behind. Told in verse, this picturebook explores themes of refugeehood and integration and draws on Latimer’s own experience of welcoming a Syrian refugee family to her hometown.
War is always a difficult topic to discuss with children. This non-fiction, lift-the-flap picturebook created in partnership with Imperial War Museums anticipates the questions many children have and answers them in an interactive, informative and reassuring way.
Through illustrated diary entries, seven-year-old Ia recounts the frightening first ten days and nights of the war in Ukraine. Ia’s father becomes a soldier, while Ia and her mum’s daily life in Kyiv is determined by sirens and curfews. They go to bed fully dressed and shelter in basements, they find small moments of joy with outdoor walks and they laugh with dad on the phone. Ia finds solace in her toy astronaut who she addresses throughout the story: ‘My astronaut, do you know what we need? We need stories - courageous stories.’ This picturebook is one such story.
Based on the true story of the author’s grandparents, this poignant and beautifully illustrated picturebook brings to light the painful and often forgotten fate of Japanese Americans during World War II.
When Mayowa goes to stay with her eccentric Grandpa Edward during the summer holidays, she discovers a family secret: Mayowa is a logosalter. By jumping barefoot on books, she can release emotions stored in stories and radiate them to people around her, making people dance with joy or cry rivers of tears. Mayowa wants to use her new-found power to save the lives of refugees, but someone is intent on stopping her.
This powerful polar bear picturebook broaches the subject of displacement as a result of global warming. With no more seals to be found in the Arctic, Papa, Mama, Masha and Misha set off in the hunt for a new home. They find refuge in ‘square iceberg’ – an abandoned house in a city. For a while they find things to eat and places to play, but before long the food runs out and their human neighbours run away. So begins again the search for somewhere else to call home.
