When I was in school, the only time the topic of children leaving home and moving to a new place was ever mentioned was in history class where we learned about concentration camps and evacuees during the Second World War. There were stories in the media about people being displaced by bombing and famine, but these things all seemed to happen so far away that for a school student like me, watching the evening news was almost like seeing a history program about the distant past.
I wasn’t until I returned to the classroom as a teacher that the topic of asylum became real and immediate for the first time.
“There has never been a more important time to teach children how to see the world through the eyes of someone else.”
A child’s perspective
Glasgow began accepting asylum seekers and refugees in the year 2000, and my probation year was undertaken at a school with large numbers of children whose families were seeking asylum. The issues that these children faced – the challenges of absorbing a new culture and language, making friends and putting down roots far from home when their futures were uncertain, and their difficulties in dealing with the memory of traumatic events, inspired me to write my debut children’s novel.
I told the story of The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle from two different perspectives – from the point of view of eleven-year-old school bully Caylin who grows up on a tough Glasgow estate where she struggles to cope with her mother’s alcohol addiction, and from the point of view of Reema, a twelve-year-old Syrian Muslim refugee who is resettled in a strange new country she’s not sure she’ll ever think of as home.
The empathy perspective
The two girls come to see the world through the eyes of the other, and learn more about themselves in the process. This was the empathy perspective that I was missing when I was at school, which prevented me from seeing the displaced people on the news as connected to me and my life in any meaningful way.
Times have changed, and not only are children in Scottish schools seeing images of refugees trekking across Europe by land and attempting dangerous crossings by boat on a weekly basis in the news, they are also more likely than ever to be one of the 0.24% of the UK population who were refugees or asylum seekers by 2015, or one of the nearly six thousand children who were granted asylum in the UK in the year ending March 2018 alone.
“One of the best ways to encourage this kind of empathy in the classroom is through books featuring refugee characters.”
Reading the world
There has never been a more important time to teach children how to see the world through the eyes of someone else, and one of the best ways to encourage this kind of empathy in the classroom is through books featuring refugee characters. Here is a selection of some of the best stories from recent years for helping children to understand the issues facing those who have had to leave home, with links to teaching resources.
Picture Books
My Name is Not Refugee by Kate Milner
The simple yet moving text of this picture book invites readers to become involved in the decision making, to help them understand the tough choices that a boy and his mother have to make when forced to leave their town and undertake a long journey to a safer place.
The Day War Came by Nicola Davies
A poignant book which tells the story of a little girl with a happy, normal life whose world is turned upside down by war. She is forced to flee to a new place, and at first she is ignored and treated as unwelcome. Her story illustrates some of the difficulties refugees face due to prejudice when they arrive in a new country.
Novels suitable for Level 2
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
A warm and humorous book which has a serious message at its core, The Boy at the Back of the Class tells the story of nine-year-old refugee Ahmet who starts school unable to speak the language and doesn’t have any friends, until four classmates decide to overlook his differences and befriend the new boy.
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
A powerful story about a Syrian family. When the civil war breaks out it impacts twelve-year-old Omar and his family in different ways, and leads to them undertaking a difficult and dangerous journey to escape the homeland they love.
Novels for Level 3
The Other Side of Truth by Beverly Naidoo
The compelling story of twelve-year-old Sade and her brother Femi who flee to Britain from Nigeria after their political journalist father is told to stop criticising the military rulers and their mother is killed. Abandoned in a new, hostile environment, this book explores what it means for young people to be classed as ‘illegal’ and the difficulties faced by refugees.
Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
This book tells the gripping story of a fourteen-year-old refugee boy who is left on his own by his father when he travels to London for the first time. A timely book about the difficult decisions families caught up in conflict have to make, and the problems new arrivals to a country face.
Graphic Novels
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of a migrant seeking work and safety in a strange new city where he doesn’t speak the language and the food and culture are different. This thought provoking silent story is suitable for all ages and is great for sparking class discussion on migrant issues.
Illegal by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano
A moving story of a family torn apart, of determination and hope of a reunion, Illegal is a powerful graphic novel about a boy’s epic journey across Africa to seek a new home in Europe.
