A Jolt out of Complacency

I love reading about authors - how they started, what inspires them to write, what they are like really ... and many of them are really very modest even though they have won awards for their writing. Elizabeth Laird is one of those writers as you can read in this interview.

Not content to sit on her laurels in the comfort of her home in Richmond, she returned to Ethiopia (where she once spent 2 years as a teacher) with the idea of collecting stories from the rich tradition of oral storytelling that exists in all parts of Africa. These would then be rendered into simple English readers to help produce culturally appropriate and affordable reading materials for Ethiopian schools. Her accountis as inspiring as it is eye-opening.

Her latest book is "The Garbage King", the story of two unlikely friends who share the same fate - living on the streets. Dani is fleeing a tyrannical father, Mamo has no home at all and is escaping a life of slavery. The realism is stark and unremitting and far from the fantasy world that is the stock in trade of many writers today. The story of their survival as streetkids is believable (Laird really met such kids in Addis) and ultimately hopeful though, and gives the reader a bit of a necessary jolt out of complacency.

Available at our shop soon at $15.70 - reserve your copy now. Suitable for 11+.

Children as victims of war

There are 40 million refugees currently in the world, about half of whom receive help from the UN refugee agency. Among them, of course, are children. Whether they are fleeing from wars in Africa, Afghanistan or Iraq, they face the same harrowing problems of displacement, fear, mistrust and a sense of hopelessness when they are unable to find refuge and settle in a permanent home. They travel for months at a time, experiencing the worst physical deprivations and often losing or having lost family members. It is a global crisis and one that will not go away overnight.

What has this to do with children's literature? Since books have been written - and even before, in the oral tradition - they have told stories of people facing challenges - sometimes real, sometimes imagined. The reader or the listener steps into the shoes of the protagonist and learns how it is to be that person, to feel his emotions, to see the world through his eyes, and to understand his situation. That can only be for the better. Perhaps it will inspire him to act more compassionately or to take time to understand others and to lift the veil of prejudice.

"I Am David" is one such book. It was originally published in 1963, in Danish, and soon after translated into English. It has never been out of print. It is set in an indeterminate place and time, and it follows 12-year-old David on his travels across Europe after he escapes from a concentration camp with little more than a compass, a sealed letter, a loaf of bread, and instructions to carry the letter to Copenhagen, Denmark. After years in camp he has lost his ability to relate to people and so his journey is also a spiritual one in which he must learn how to trust others again. It is an ultimately hopeful story that celebrates the human spirit of resilience and the power of love.

It is now set to be released as a film and should be on the screen in the US at least by October 8th this year. Let's hope it comes to Singapore too!

Other books that depict the lives of young people in times of war include: "Parvana" and "Parvana's Journey" by Deborah Ellis about a young girl in Afghanistan who is forced to live by her wits to ensure she and her younger siblings survive the war; "Thura's Diary" by Thura Al-Windawi which is a first hand account of an Iraqi teenager who lives through the bombings and the lawlessness of wartorn Baghdad ; "Boy Overboard" and its sequel "Girl Underground" by Morris Gleitzman which recount life for refugee children in Australian camps and for older children and teens the very popular series by John Marsden which begins with "Tomorrow When the War Began".