Refugee Asylum Seeker Book List

I really enjoyed this list of stories for children about refugees and asylum seekers from Book Trust.

It's the humanitarian issue of our time really and I think deserves it's own list that can continue to be expanded as I've done with Brona's War Book List. I've added a few already, and will add more over time -as I remember them, and new books as they come up. 

A Dangerous Crossing - Jane Mitchell
A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park
Alpha: Abidjan to Gare du Nord - Barroux, Sarah Ardizzone (translator)

A Story Like The Wind - Gill Lewis, Jo Weaver (illustrator)
Azzi in Between - Sarah Garland

Boy Overboard - Morris Gleitzman

Girl Underground - Morris Gleitzman
Give Me Shelter - Tony Bradman (editor)

Home and Away - John Marsden, Matt Ottley (illustrator)
Hope in a Ballet Shoe - Michaela & Elaine De Prince

Illegal - Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin
In The Sea There are Crocodiles - Fabio Geda, Howard Curtis (translator)
Inside Out & Back Again - Thanhha Lai (see my review)
Jackdaw Summer - David Almond

My Name is Not Refugee - Kate Milner
My Two Blankets - Irena Kobald, Freya Blackwood (illustrator) (see my review)

Now is the Time for Running - Michael Williams

Oranges in No Man's Land - Elizabeth Laird

Refuge - Anne Booth, Sam Usher (illustrator)
Refuge - Jackie French
Refugee - Alan Gratz
Refugee Boy - Benjamin Zephaniah
Refugees - David Miller

Shadow - Michael Morpurgo
Soraya The Story Teller - Rosanne Hawke
Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey - Margaret Ruurs, Nizar Ali Badr (artist)
Suri's Wall - Lucy Estela, Matt Ottley (illustrator) 

The Arrival - Shaun Tan (see my review)
The Bone Sparrow - Zana Fraillon
The Island - Armin Greder
The Journey - Francesca Sanna
The Lines We Cross - Randa Abdel-Fattah
The Little Refugee - Anh Do, Suzanne Do, Bruce Whatley (illustrator) (see my review)
The Milk of Birds - Sylvia Whitman
The Other Side of Truth - Beverley Naidoo

The Red Pencil - Andrea Davis Pinkney
The Silence Seeker - Ben Morley, Carl Pearce (illustrator)
The Silver Sword - Ian Serraillier
The Treasure Box - Margaret Wild, Freya Blackwood (illustrator) (see my review)

Welcome to Nowhere - Elizabeth Laird
When Michael Met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah

Ziba Came on a Boat - Liz Lofthouse, Robert Ingpen (illustrator)

The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon

I read David Almond's extraordinary The Fire-Eaters last year. I've been keen to read more of his writing ever since- checking out my library, and even buying a book online (not this one). I've been enjoying a few quick reads over the last few weeks- perfect for our ridiculously hot Australian summer this year- it's much too hot to concentrate on anything lengthy, I have no idea how everyone else is reading The Luminaries in this weather.

I'd borrowed The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon from my library before, but returned it unread. I was determined to read it this time. I'm determined to read more David Almond and the title and cover of this one really appealed.

There is what seems to be a typical Almond start.

Some time ago, there was s rather lonely boy named Paul who lived in a city in the north of England. He lived underground, in a basement flat at the bottom of a great apartment block. Over his head, there was floor after floor after floor, and family after family.

This made the world seem very heavy and the sky seem far away. 

Paul decides to go and touch the sky even though he'd never thought that he might be adventurous. Of course he sets of on his adventure and meets a cast of rather unusual characters that populate his apartment building. It all becomes rather bizarre, diverting off to thoughts about war, and while that is moving, it's also a becomes even more odd.

"Correct! It was the obvious solution. There we were, billions and zillions of us lined up on the battlefield, armed to the teeth, glaring and growling and gnashing our teeth, all of us determined to kill as many of each other as we possibly could. I just took a shortcut. Soon as any battle started, I just dropped down dead."

There are discussions of fate and destiny. Of imagination, spontaneity and planning.

"What's the plan?" he asked.

"The plan?" said Benjamin. "What could be more boring than a plan? How can we plan when the outcome is unknown? How can we plan for the impossible, the outrageous, the unspeakable?"

The back cover blurb quotes:

Almond lays claim to being Roald Dahl's rightful heir- cookiemag.com

I don't think I really agree with that- I do think that David Walliams is much a better fit for Dahl's legacy. Although we do learn that sausages are better than war, that's somewhat Dahlesque. Philip Ardagh proclaimed it a modern classic, a fable for all ages, and "the kind of book I've always wished The Little Prince had been". I do think that The Little Prince is a better comparison than Dahl. But I didn't understand The Little Prince that well either. I'm sure both would reward rereading at some stage and while I didn't love The Boy Who Climbed Into the Moon as much as I expected, I'll certainly keep reading David Almond.

The Fire-Eaters

I just love finding great new authors that you've never really heard of before. I started to know of David Almond a year or two ago, but hadn't had a chance to read him before I picked up The Fire-Eaters recently. I often find when the name and the cover of a book don't really appeal, sometimes it's good to read it anyway, even if somewhat begrudgingly, as often it's a great revelation.

The Fire-Eaters is an oddly engaging story written about a summer and autumn in Northern England. It's not just any ordinary late summer though. It's 1962, and everyone is consumed with thoughts and fears of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the ever present threat of nuclear war. I thought David Almond did an amazing job of conveying the uncertainty, fear and despair that the people were going through. They thought that nuclear war was about to start. That really came through in the story. The kids were spooked, the adults were too. Not the usual cheery subjects, or style, of children's literature.

Then I lay in bed and dreamed again and the blankets became chains and my sleep was a great writhing and struggling to break free.

The Fire-Eaters is set in the small coastal community of Keely Bay, near Newcastle. Bobby Burns lives near the beach in a modest house, that is probably run down. The Spink family live nearby. Their mother has died recently and all the children help their father gather sea coal to fund their rather marginal, but reasonably happy existence.  Bobby meets McNulty on page one- a mysterious figure, he is a strong man and fire-eater busking at the market in Newcastle when Bobby visits with his mother one Sunday morning. There is a clear malevolence and history surrounding McNulty.

He was wrapped in chains. He writhed and jerked and struggled on the cobbles.
'Look at him,' she said. 'The poor soul.'

And what of the new boy who has moved in to Keely Bay with his family? Will he be a friend, or another new threat? The children also face more real and immediate dramas at their new high school. The changing weather is also used to represent the changing political climate.

All that sense that things is doomed and all that gathering scariness.

It was ultimately quite a political, yet even a hopeful book. Bobby asks his father:

'Is it always right to protest,' I said, 'even if you think it's hopeless?'

I actually made two starts at reading The Fire-Eaters. The first time I tried it clearly wasn't the right time for me. I made a tentative start, and was a bit put off early on. I only read two chapters then, and there was something of the malevolence of McNulty that reminded me of The Changeover, which I hadn't really liked. So I set it aside while I finished The Coral Island. Happily when I picked up The Fire-Eaters again I fell under David Almond's thrall quite quickly. I really enjoyed his writing. I love his use of the Northern England dialect, all that owt and nowt and bairns. Bobby's family mix jam into their rice pudding! How good does that sound? Definitely something to try this winter. I love rice pudding but had never thought of combining it with jam.

There's a quote from The Sunday Telegraph on the back cover of my library copy:

One of these days, someone is going to notice that David Almond has been kidnapped by children's publishing and demand him back for adults.

That pretty much sums it up for me. I'm looking forward to reading much more of his work. The Fire-Eaters is certainly one that would repay rereading.

206/1001