More than a few of you requested a hit, so here goes and thanks again to
all who contributed. I may have left out some duplicate suggestions, but
I think all of the titles are here:
You might want to consider Mary Hoffman's picture book, The Color of Home.
It's about a young boy whose family has fled from the war in Somalia, and
while he can't speak English in his new American school, he can express what
he has experienced and what he hopes for through his paintings.
The first thing I want to mention is that I was at the National Geographic
Headquarters in DC last month and they were running this excellent exhibit
of art by children in refugee camps from Burma and a few other hot spots
around the globe. Typical of NG, it was incredibly well done. I have to
believe that they have accompanying print material. I can't recommend
looking into this enough.
As for books--Girl of Kosovo, Zlata's Diary, Letters from Rifka, Before We
Were Free,Grab Hands and Run, When My Name was Keoko come to mind. There is
also one called Little Soldier which takes place (a I recall) in a
fictionalized country in Africa but it closely parellels the situtation in
Sudan and other places where young boys are taken into the army at extremely
young ages.
The Breadwinner, by Deborah Ellis, might be timely - it's about a Afghani
girl who must masquerade as a boy to help feed her family.
Marilyn
How about SAMI AND THE TIME OF THE TROUBLES by Florence Parry Heide?
I am going to buy this book for my library. I saw it in a bookstore this
summer:
The orphans of Normandy : a true story of World War II told through drawings
by children / Nancy Amis. It looked very interesting.
I'm not sure how easy it is to get Australian titles in the US, but our
authors have produced some excellent picture books that would fit the
theme. Some of my favourites are:
'The Staircase Cat' written by Colin Thompson ; illustrated by Anna
Pignataro
Hodder Children's, 1998
'My Dog' written by John Heffernan ; illustrated by Andrew McLean
Scholastic Australia, 2001
'My Hiroshima' by Junko Morimoto
HarperCollins, 1995
'In Flanders Fields' written by Norman Jorgensen ; illustrated by Brian
Harrison-Lever
Fremantle : Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2002
Fireflies in the Dark: the Story of Friedl Dieker-Brandeis and the Children
of Terezin, by Susan Goldman Rubin
In 1942 Friedl and all the Jews in their town were removed to Terezin, a
concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. An artist and a teacher, she packed
art supplies instead of things for herself. At Terezin, she taught art
classes to all the children there. Contains reproductions of the children's
artwork.
A book I'm familiar with that would be appropriate for middle or high
school students is:
...I Never Saw Another Butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from
Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944
Hana Volavkova (Editor), Vaclav Havel (Afterword), Foreword by Chaim
Potok.
This is a collection of poetry and artwork done by children at the
Terezin concentration camp. As far as I know, the work was done in
secret and hidden until after the war . . . Information is also given
about which of the children died and at which death camp.
Judith Schaffner
Librarian
Bronx H.S. of Science
Bronx, NY
jschaffner@igc.org
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