Nicola Davies always chooses powerful subjects to
sink her teeth into and create a story that lives and breathes.
This story was
inspired by an incident in 2016, in which the UK government refused to give
sanctuary to 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees.
It was a single refugee child,
refused entry into a school because there was no chair for her to sit on that
sparked the genesis of this book.
Profoundly moving, this poetic championing of the
weakest individuals will bring tears to your eyes as it did to mine. Making my
way through the pages, I felt I was the child that had everything stolen from
her by war. She was one of thousands that slept in holes or barns or any hut or
corner they could find. One of all those desperates that crossed mountains and rode on the back of trucks, then
travelled on a boat that leaked and
almost sank.
I knew her suffering as if it was my own. I felt
her isolation and the inhumanity and disregard of the teacher that sent her
away. She walked forever trying to drive
the war out of herself. But it was locked inside her.
Then the tears flowed, when a boy came to her hut
with a chair so you can come to school.
All of his friends followed his example.
This is what writing is about, especially when
writing for children. Nicola Davies goes for the jugular. She wants people to
bleed with emotion because only then will they feel what she is trying to
convey. She does this superbly, repeating what she did in her extraordinary
depiction of migration and its isolation in her recent picture book, King of the Sky.
Illustrator Rebecca Cobb must be commended for her
insightful translation of Davies’ moving text. The inner and outer darkness and
complete sense of loss in the child is expressed as it is – darkness. The
girl’s acknowledgement that she was not the only one with this darkness is
obvious due to Cobb’s ability to immerse herself in the text.
The front end papers depict empty chairs of all
kinds. The back end papers show children sitting in the chairs. That says so
much.
At the end there is an author’s note about what
motivated Nicola Davies to write this book, and how anyone interested in
helping, can do so.
Title:
The Day War Came
Author:
Nicola Davies
Illustrator:
Rebecca Cobb
Publisher:
Walker Books, $24.99
Publication
Date: June 2018
Format:
Hardcover
ISBN:
9781406376326
For
ages: 5+
Type:
Picture Book
