On the 18th of June we commemorated Refugee Week with a special event for The Day War Came at The Book Club. We had author Nicola Davies and illustrator Rebecca Cobb on a panel with 100 chair illustrations up for grabs including pieces from
Shirley Hughes, Shaun Tan and Nick Sharratt. Tickets were £20 with everyone receiving a randomly allocated chair illustration – all money from tickets has been donated to Help
Refugees.
A powerful and necessary picture book, The Day War Came shows the journey of a child forced to become a refugee when war destroys everything she has ever known.
Imagine if, on an ordinary day, war came. Imagine it turned your town to rubble. Imagine going on a long and difficult journey – all alone. Imagine finding no welcome at the end of it. Then imagine a child who gives you something small but very, very precious... When the government refused to allow 3000 child refugees to enter this country in 2016, Nicola Davies was so angry she wrote a poem. It started a campaign for which artists contributed drawings of chairs, symbolising a seat in a classroom, education, kindness, the hope of a future. The poem has become this book, movingly illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, which should prove a powerful aid for explaining the ongoing refugee crisis to younger readers.
50p from every paperback copy sold goes to the charity Help Refugees – find out more about their wonderful work at their website, helprefugees.org.
You can pick up a copy of The Day War Came at your local bookshop and you can find The Day War Came teacher's notes here.
