posted on 16 Jan 2017

Letterpress event at Greenfield Primary School: We all sleep under the same stars

I was delighted to be invited back to this school that clearly values the importance of books and tries hard to provide plenty of book related events and experiences to inspire the children. This time I was working with the whole of Year 6 on the theme of asylum seekers and refugees. This is always a tricky and sensitive subject to discuss with younger children but I was so impressed with their intense concentration and obvious concern for the terrible plight of people who had to flee their homes.

We looked at ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ by Judith Kerr as an introduction to the scale of the refugee crisis in Europe caused by WW2. This autobiographical story is such a good way to demonstrate how such experiences can have a happy ending with a child eventually settling in a new country and, in this case establishing herself as a well -loved author, still writing children’s books aged 94. Several of the children volunteered some points about what a significant war it had been and how it had affected their own families. One boy asked me if I knew anything about the Siege of Malta that an uncle had been involved with and offered to tell me all about it later.

I then read the spectacular opening paragraph to ‘The Other Side of Truth’ by Beverley Naidoo as a tried and tested way to engage people with the horror of two young Nigerian children witnessing the murder of their mother. Their consequent need to escape to seek asylum in England never fails to bring home the dreadful decisions that need to be made very quickly.   I was pleased to find out that there were some Michael Morpurgo fans in the class and a couple had read and enjoyed ‘Shadow’ which is a great story that illustrates how perilous the journey from Afghanistan to a place of safety can be. I again highlighted the poignant passage where the children have to leave their elderly grandma behind because she is too sick to travel.   

‘Boy Overboard’ by Morris Gleitzman is one of my favourites because I like the way he emphasises the ordinariness of the two children who are avid football lovers forced to leave Afghanistan to make the dangerous journey to make a new life in Australia.

 Sometimes pictures can be even more powerful than words so we also looked at the strange sepia images about migration and the strangeness of trying to understand a different culture in ‘ The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan. I am pleased to say that I heard at least one ‘ wow’ and some gasps  in reaction to this stunning wordless picture book. As ever, time was too short but they also were very impressed with the powerful pictures in ‘The Journey’ by Francesca Sanna and the comic like style of ‘Azzi in Between’ by Sarah Garland.

I started the session by showing them a badge with the slogan ‘ We all sleep under the same stars’ and they were very keen to tell me that this meant that people were the same across the world, because they were human.  I came away feeling very encouraged at their compassion, empathy and enthusiasm to read some of the books and am also looking forward to receiving some of their poetry and stories.     

Karen Argent

January 2017