Lockdown readings from Sita and Billie in #Refugeeweek2020

Getting ready for storytime in #Refugeeweek2020
Thanks for the serious hand from my film crew (Steady iphone cam - daughter and a patient companion here!)

In #RefugeeWeek many children's and Young Adult authors who have written into  the experiences of child refugees past and present, would be in schools or libraries reading and talking about their work.

In lockdown I have decided a read short extract from one of the refugee children or adult characters in my stories each day. I'm doing this in the knowledge that teachers, parents and carers home schooling children may be looking for opportunities to discover alternative stories to those they may hear in the news.

Last week was Empathy Day and many children's authors talked about the power of deep listening and the importance of facing rather than shying away from events in the real world, and that fiction provides us with a way of nagivating the world, and of  growing empathy for our fellow humans.

The wonderful activist and author of 'Boy At The Back Of The Class'  Onjali Q Rauf and i spoke about the power of reading stories to grow empathy and putting it in action. I'm missing the energy of meeting readers so I thought to  read from refugee characters in my stories. You'll find a new one each morning on twitter..

If you enjoy them I ask you to use this as an opportunity to discover how to support groups in your area and I hope these discoveries  might even lead you to see how you might help in your school or community.

I offer you.... my storytime schedule each morning on twitter and a few surprises thrown in:

Monday -  From Baba Suli the beekeeper in 'Where The River Runs Gold (Hachette Children's Books) whose knowledge may save food production in the world.
Resource:
https://www.hachetteschools.co.uk/hachette-schools-resources/hachetteschools-resources-key-stage-2/2019/07/08/where-the-river-runs-gold-teaching-resources/

Tuesday - From the short story Amir and George - where the ghost of George Orwell comes to hear Amir speak. ( In ' A country to Call Home'  Ed. Lucy Propescu , Unbound - an anthology of writing by Young adult writers First published in 'I'll be Home for Christmas.
Resource:
https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/video-clips/ks3-language-laboratory-the-power-of-voice

Wednesday - Readings for younger readers Years 2 and Upwards from 'Worry Angels' (Barrington Stoke) and  short story ' Rabina's Robin' from ' One snowy night'  ( Stripes)
Resources:
https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Worry-Angels.pdf

Animation: http://www.minervareads.com/tag/manning-grace-emily/

Thursday - Bubbe Dara - a Kindertransport refugee reflects on the treatment of child refugees today.
'Tender Earth' - Macmillan Children's Books - endorsed by Amnesty UK and IBBY.

Friday - Aisha, a Somali Refugee survivor wishes people could understand what she's been through. Set in an ancient city wood 'Red Leaves'  ( Macmillan Children's Books- endorsed by Amnesty UK Resources:
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/book-and-activities-red-leaves)

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/stories-and-rights/sita-brahmachari-home-homelessness-identity-and-belief

Saturday -  Back to my beginning as a novelist. Jide Jackson tells his story of loss during the Rwandan genocide in 'Artichoke Hearts' (Macmillan Children's Books)

My ask of you...

In return I ask you to explore these links to a few examples of Refugee Charities whose work makes such a difference to the lives of refugee people and see if and how you can affect change.

https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/

This centre is where the wonderful illustrator and author Jane Ray and I run an art and writing class. Currently resources are being sent through the post - you can find out more on the video from actress Juliet Stevenson and discover the beautiful poems and art by members of the group on on the website now.

https://youngroots.org.uk/

https://makingherstory.org.uk/

https://counterpointsarts.org.uk/

https://www.safepassage.org.uk/

https://www.google.com/search?q=book+aid+international&oq=bookaidinternational&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l7.6637j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


Find out about...#FamiliesTogether

And at this time when we are all missing seeing and connecting to our families -  find out more about the #FamiliesTogether campaign supported by a coalition of refugee organisations.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2018-02/Families%20Together%20toolkit%20for%20youths.pdf?S6WQM__GXdKwEvaM0VQWXsoN9dXriJQd=

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/families-together
.

'Where The River Runs Gold' - a forest of creative responses

Since publication of  Where The River Runs Gold in July 2019 I have been overwhelmed by the creativity that it's brought forth. From the beautiful window displays by Waterstones stores to the incredible creations by students, librarians and teachers at festivals and in classrooms. 

 I have been asked to put together a sample pallette of activity inspired by the book.

Trafalgar Square window boxes July 2019

I hope this selection of  creative responses inspires readers and to feel empowered to make a difference to improving their own environments.

Shifa and Themba, the brave, bold and true young protagonists of my story, are right there with you. Warning! Once you enter the story hive the creative potential for reading, writing and art for pleasure are endless and can be far-reaching...

Actions so far....

  Bee hives set up

Banners made

School Environmental Manifestos drawn up

Seeds scattered in window boxes, gardens, allotments, railtracks, unused land and meadows 

Seed packets made and used daily

 For every Graffitree created in school a tree has been planted. 

A hand painted tree by Waterstones artist

Seed Packet making

'What Shifa loved most about the path between the warehouse and the Orbitol Bridge was that the street clearers could never keep speed with the pace at which the weeds and wildflowers grew between the cracks. There was always traces of green shoots growing among the crumbling buildings.'

Page 23 Where The River Runs Gold

Origami seed packet making is catching on.... these decorated with scenes from the story

'From one random page she'd learned how to make a flower shaped origami envelope out of scraps of paper, When she squeezed the top the flower head opened like a mouth allowing her to place her precious seed finds inside.' 

Page 57 Where The River Runs Gold

Graffitree Art

Trees are springing up everywhere ... I'm hoping to collect them together to form the

  Where The River Runs Gold Graffitree Forest.

'Shifa thought she understood why the artists took the risk of breaking ARK Law. These trees took up space and could be enjoyed by everyone. Except for the private parks and gardens of the paragons where her papa worked, it was ARK policy that all other land in Kairos City be turned into housing compounds or Freedom Fields allotments to grow food.'

 Page 20 Where The River Runs Gold

Amy Willoughby from Beck school Sheffield with the first ever school Graffitree

Empatree hands... children reaching out to the natural world

Jane Ray touring Graffitree  first outing at Imagine Festival 2020

At Little Green School, Buckinghamshire

A beautiful golden river by  Krishna in Wood Green, London

Shifa had heard about an underground movement of artists breaking ARK Law by painting trees, flowers, plants and bees on walls all over the city.' 

Page 19 Where The River Runs Gold

Banner Making

'Nabil and Lottie dropped a rainbow-coloured sheet over the ledge; on it, in deep blue paint, were written four enormous words.

DARE

DREAM

BELIEVE

IMAGINE 

Pg 94 'Where The River Runs Gold' 

Banner inspired by Where The River Runs Gold  made by Friday for Future protesters.

Banner making.... The first banner was created by Friday For Futures Campaigners and since then many banners have been made, some of which have been carried on marches by young people and others displayed in schools. Students respond powerfully to the urgency of the environmental call for action in the book as in the real world they are inspired by the bravery of young activists like Greta Thunberg and Maya Rose Craig in villages, towns and cities all around the globe. 

Beautiful banner spied on The People's Walk for Wildlife 2019

Story Hive building

Shifa and Themba escape some of the harsh realities of their world  by creating a safe storytelling haven. Students have started creating such spaces in classrooms and around the school inspired by their own beautiful imagined landscapes from stories or their own lives.

'Here they had read contraband pages that they had discovered in unlikely places around the city, and with these finds their story hive had expanded into wild deserts, alien planets, raging rivers, bird and butterfly aviaries, the tallest snow capped mountain ranges and the sweetest flowering meadows  - a world away from the rules and regulations of Freedom Fields.'
Pg 57 Where The River Runs Gold

A necklace depicting the 'Hare in the Moon' story. The allegory told to them by their father that keeps Shifa and Themba strong throughout their perilous journey

It's been a real joy to see Story hives being created to inspire creative writing of new allegories based on the natural world.

Creating a secret language/ signs

A skep is a small hand woven bee hive.... 

In Where The River Runs Gold Shifa and Themba and other 'Outlanders' make the 'skep-heart' signal as part of a secret language. Readers have enjoyed inventing their own secret languages. 

Making the skep-heart sign of environmental protection

Enjoy creating and storytelling.... in the storytelling hive. 

Sita X

Resources:

Shapes4Schools:

https://www.hachetteschools.co.uk/hachette-schools-resources/hachetteschools-resources-key-stage-2/2019/07/08/where-the-river-runs-gold-teaching-resources/

Where The River Runs Gold:
Longlisted for Blue Peter Book Award
Nominated for Carnegie
Waterstones Book of the Month ( July)
Times Book of the Week
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/childrens-book-of-the-week-where-the-river-runs-gold-by-sita-brahmachari-8q0kslsn9

Where does the river run gold for children's rights?

In this the thirtieth anniversary year of the declaration of the Rights of The Child, I have been thinking of how central an exploration of children's rights has been to my writing journey over the past decade or so. 

My Rites of Passage stories have one thread in common, they all explore the journeys and struggles of children and young people with diverse diaspora roots as they navigate our world. It's a search that, against the backdrop of politics today can sometimes feel like an odyssey I share with many children and YA novelists.... a seeking for commonality, empathy, fairness and humanity and doing this through the eyes and sensibility of the young ... for them.. can feel deeply charged...even urgent. 

A decade of stories and contributions to YA anthologies that have grown from our times

From beginning writing my first novel for young people over a decade ago, my stories have not turned away from the larger struggles we face in the world today, like racial and religious intolerance, mental health, grief, poverty inequality, homelessness, the treatment of refugee people and environmental complacency.

I have not explored these stories through the eyes of children because I set out to tackle 'issues' but because in beginning each new story  I  discover child characters I want to journey with... young voices whose vision and realities are struggling to be heard.


A lot has changed for children's rights in the decade or so that these three stories span.

It was a beautiful moment for me to discover the journey-thread for Jide Jackson, from his desperate plight in the Rwandan Genocide in 'Artichoke Hearts' (2011) to his becoming a trainee doctor, re-visiting the land of his birth family in my later book 'Tender Earth' (2018).

Artichoke Hearts, Jasmine Skies, Tender Earth ( Published by Macmillan  Children's Books)

When I began writing 'Artichoke Hearts' the politics of the world did not intrude too deeply on the Levenson family to the extent they do in my more recent novels. Rightly or wrongly, the Levenson parents wished, and were more or less able, to shield Mira and Krish and their new baby Laila from having to learn about some of the more brutal events in world history ' before they were ready'. But they were protecting their children from a story that their fellow class mate was facing.

In 'Jasmine Skies', as Mira travels to India her activist eyes are opened and the novel that completes this book-family 'Tender Earth' sees Janu, a young man who runs an orphanage in Kolkata returning to a London in which the inequality, homelessness and racism are shockingly present. Laila (the baby in 'Artichoke Hearts') becomes the narrator in 'Tender Earth' and she must navigate her story through a time in which the disruptions of the world are mirrored in her own classmates and community. She finds she cannot stand by and see hatred and discrimination grow. The racist attack that Janu experiences, or the defiling of Bubbe Dara's husband's grave with swastikas is tragically, no act of the imagination.

Children must find a way to grow from these tender times
'Tender Earth' ( Macmillan Children's Books) 

A 'Tender Earth' it is for Pari, the child of Iraqi refugee parents who must every day experience the racist abuse in her substandard housing conditions (written pre-Grenfell tragedy but all too poignant now). The inequalities deepen as Pari is too proud to tell her new best friend, Laila, that she is hungry at school. In writing scenes in this book I wanted to speak to Pari and say 'it is not you who should feel ashamed.'

I am often asked where all these stories have come from... and keep coming from! It's simple... it's children who inspire me...and a deep wish to see their rights protected and respected. As the ghost of George Orwell says when I imagined him showing up to hear the story of a refugee child, notebook in hand 'Speak Amir, I came to hear you speak.' ('Amir and George', Stripes. I'll be Home for Christmas).

In 'Red Leaves' Iona, a homeless girl from Scotland has been abandoned on the streets of London and her rights are really only protected through the random kindness of a Sikh family-'The Kalsis' who attempt to guide her and offer comfort and shelter. These children, holding diaspora journeys from Somalia, America, Scotland and London... meet in ancient woods that have historically protected them.

Red Leaves ( Endorsed by Amnesty)  Published by Macmillan Children's Books

The rights of children.... holding courage keys to the story hive!

In writing my latest novel 'Where The River Runs Gold' (Orion) I asked myself where does the river run gold for children's rights? What kind of society can we build in which the rights of the child are truly honoured and protected. I have imagined a near future world in which environmental damage has brought forward a crisis in food production, leading to the decimation of bees, pollinators, tree and plant life..... and of course into this world children are born. Greta Thunberg is such a bright beacon in our times and, like Greta, my young characters Shifa and Themba must fight for their rights to be  protected.  In my story The Emergency Ark Government has suspended the laws to deal with the immediate climate and food production crisis.... and as a result the children must trust in the promises of leaders.       

Where The River Runs Gold ( Published by Orion) Carnegie Nominated.

“It’s becoming all too clear that climate change will have a devastating impact on human rights. Where the River Runs Gold explores a not-too-distant future where children are enslaved so that their small hands can be used to pollinate plants. Their rights are multiply denied because of the greed of corporations and governments. It’s a bleak prophecy, but author Sita Brahmachari, as ever, pays tribute to the power of solidarity and friendship and this book has a warm and glowing heart.”

Nicky Parker, Publisher. Amnesty International UK

Children and young adults today understand how deeply words used, the truths they hold and the narratives we tell matter in helping us face our biggest challenges. In the near future world The Ark  authorities know what they are doing when they close the libraries and remove the books from the majority of 'Freedom' children, discouraging them to paint or draw, read stories, question the status quo or imagine a different future.

But stories are powerful forces indeed and Shifa refuses to stop sewing re-wilding seeds! For Shifa and Themba access to the pages they can hold is denied them and the portal to their broad education is closed, they protect their story hive because they know it holds the courage keys to their future.

In imagining the world through children's eyes, I pause long and deep to try to see what they see, feel what they feel and time and again the question that comes as I write is how are we protecting these children's rights: to have a childhood, to be safe, to have a home, to be treated fairly, with equality....the right to breathe fresh air, to access nature, to play, to express themselves, to follow their faiths  and cultures and have them represented, to be included, to drink clean water, to eat, to be educated, to enter the story hives of their imaginations and to look forward to a brighter and more beautiful future?

Where The River Runs Gold  (Endorsed by Amnesty ) is published by Orion (Hachette Children's Books)

Rights of The Child Resources and Information:

www.amnesty.org.uk/education

'Tender Earth,' 'Corey's Rock,' 'Red Leaves' and 'Where The River Runs Gold' have been endorsed by Amnesty International.

'Tender Earth' was honoured by The International Board of Books for Young People ( 2018)  commenting that this depiction of contemporary childhood resonates in the Britain of today.

https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/open-letter-to-worlds-children

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/climate-change-school-strikes-praised-head-amnesty

Publication Day Celebration - Waterstones Book of the Month

Dare, Dream, Believe, Imagine....

'Where The River Runs Gold' 

Orion Children's Books

Edited by Sam Swinnerton

Endorsed by Amnesty International 

Published July 1st 2019

Waterstones Children's Book of The Month

Blackwells Display pick

How wonderful and exciting to see the beautiful displays inspired by 'Where The River Runs Gold' emerging in Waterstones Bookshops. I'm looking forward to seeing many of them. 

To celebrate 'Where The River Runs Gold' publication day I am so happy to present this beautiful textile art. It is made by #FridayForFuture environmental activists in response to the story and includes patchwork pockets and origami seed envelopes full of re-wilding treasure from the book.

It's pictured with:

🌻 'Where The River Runs Gold' notebook (containing world building maps/sketches)

🌻A hessian save the bee bag (no plastic is permitted in the Kairos Lands)  

🌻A painting pallet I imagine belonging to a Forager 'Graffitree' artist 

These Publication Day patchwork pieces are scattered in my wild flower garden of daisies, lavender and golden evening primrose... On a sunny Sunday I've been imagining  my character Shifa on the secret, forbidden 'Flower Tracks' making her daisy chains and turning the evening primrose and lavender into healing oils for her family.

In near future Kairos Lands where I've been roaming the world is divided into 'Paragons', 'Freedoms' and 'Outlanders' and it's clear that ...'All that glitters is not gold' but Shifa and Themba and their fellow environmentalists must search for what truly is...

As we approach the summer holidays I hope this story will inspire much re-wilding of wildflower tracks in the earth and in storytelling imaginations too.

In the landscapes I love most you are always discovering new paths. I have been lucky enough to work with great creative teams in children's publishing from the start of writing stories for young people with 'Artichoke Hearts' (Macmillan Children's Books). Since then there are so many golden threads to this storytelling journey - all of them written from the heart and it has been a great joy to work with Sam Swinnerton (Senior Editor - Orion Children's Books) once again.

Screen shot of my books created by Concord College, Shropshire

 

In 'Where The River Runs Gold' I have slipped out of time present, entered the story-hive of mythical lands and discovered a new river path in my storytelling garden. 

Art from the Art and Writing Class run by Jane Ray and myself
(As artist and writer in residence at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants)
Our artistic work together is referenced in the acknowledgements of 'Where The River Runs Gold.

Over the next few weeks I'll be touring around with the wonderful Dom Kingston 

(Head of PR at Orion Children's books) and talking more about world building in the Kairos Lands ... but for now I just want to say a heartfelt (skep-heart!) thank you to the whole team at Orion Children's Books and my agent Sophie Gorell Barnes at MBA literary Agents for their great enthusiasm, creativity and care in publishing this story. I can't wait to hear how it grows in reader's imaginations.

So thrilled with this publication day news. Thanks to all the wonderful staff at Waterstones for their book love.

https://www.waterstones.com/campaign/books-of-the-month

Why calling Greta Thunberg 'a girl in pigtails' is so deeply troubling

All children's and YA authors will have been on the receiving end of the question 'When are you going to write an adult novel?' Maybe one day I will, maybe I won't but what I think is at the core of the question is a perception that writing for young people is somehow of a lesser quality or importance than novels written solely for adults.

I know I'm not alone in hearing from adults who have picked up my inter-generational stories that they spoke to them powerfully, but sometimes this is said with an element of surprise.

I fear that what is deeply embedded in our society is an attitude towards children and young people that denigrates their abilities and by extension those who create work for them. As an author and Amnesty Ambassador I am constantly inspired by the young people I meet, their vision, clarity and bravery. I have often written  young women characters who put themselves on the line and stand up to inequality when they see it.

As Greta Thunberg has stated again and again... she has not mobilised children throughout the world to leave school to make governments of the world listen.... for fun! She has done so because time is of the essence.... she is a young woman with all her life ahead of her... and that life will be compromised by lack of action.

So for adults to denigrate a young woman who has ( unlike so many world leaders) used social media as a force for good and speaks to power with clarity, passion and wisdom.... is for me a deeply troubling sign of disrespect to young women and young people in our society.

It disrespects girls, women and  childhood.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Rights of The Child.

I've heard people talk negatively about young people knowing their rights countering the argument by the suggestion that 'they should know their responsibilities.'

In a week where children experiencing hunger in this country spoke in Parliament of the shame of child poverty I am incredulous at some of the commentary I read by adults in relations to children and childhood.

In my mind it is the children today who are showing responsibilty with great dignity and honesty. When adults choose to respond by calling one extraordinary young woman 'a girl in pigtails'
it speaks volumes to me of who needs to learn some respect... and it's not the children.

I for one am proud to be a children's and YA author....to walk side by side with them, help with the power of the imagination to speak to their humanity in these tender present times and to narrate them into a brighter future.

Links:

Greta Thunberg - ' You're never too small to make a difference'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg

Greta Thunberg - Full Speech to UK Parliament
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg-full-speech-to-mps-you-did-not-act-in-time

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRC30thAnniversary.aspx

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/resource_sheet_8.pdf

Where The River Runs Gold

Receiving a proof copy of a story born in the wild, meandering paths of your imagination never loses its magic. I'm so looking forward to introducing readers to the 'brave and true' Shifa and Themba and their family. 

The knitted bee below was a birthday present from my lovely friend Sarah and is just the sort of thing that Shifa would make because in the lands in which she lives the bees appear to have flown our world. 

Where The River Runs Gold is published by Orion Children's Books and is to be published on 11th July 2011.

Here's a snippet...

Reading through the proof I’ve been thinking about the process of writing and the winding paths of life, time and art and loved landscapes, all central themes in this story set in the mythical Kairos Lands.. in Kairos Time regenerative possibilities still remain open...

Dr Ryad Alsous  world renowned bee keeper and refugee from Syria  whose story inspired the character of Nabil (Shifa and Themba's father) and his ancestors and to consider the very real threat to our bees.

In Where The River Runs Gold I've been exploring how we're caring for the rights of children and our environment, the rivers, forests, the bees, the urban parks… and I've been asking what thresholds present and future generations might have to breach to make governments of the world protect this planet and change the way the worlds resources and economies are organised and shared. 

In writing I have been mindful of the number of adults and children around the world (some of whom I meet at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants) who become refugees because of environmental devastation due to climate change, mismanagement of land or unwillingness to share the world's resources.

Stories sometimes wait to be born in you and into the right time. My daughter (now almost fifteen years old)  and her friends along with millions of young people  were inspired by amazing activists like Greta Thunberg to strike... to leave school to show leaders of the world the urgency of their cry. Because of generations of denial, apathy and intransigence young people are now mobilising, as my young characters Shifa and Themba must to pressurise governments to save their planet, to think of new ways of living where the world's resources are shared more equally… for in my novel as in life it is young people who pay the heaviest price…

Where The River Runs Gold begins with the cry of a baby....and this story is dedicated to my wonderful editor Sam Swinnerton's baby, Ada. I worked with Sam on my first novel 'Artichoke Hearts' (Macmillan Children's Books) and it has been a real joy and adventure to work with her again, exploring new tributaries in my storytelling journey. As we met for editorial meetings and Ada grew, I thought deeply about what sort of world she would be born into and about writing a story containing the wonders of the natural world, a time portal of regenerative possibilities and a cry for the urgent need to protect this planet.


For inquiries contact: Dominic.Kingston@hachettechildrens.co.uk 

If you have not heard Greta Thunberg's cry for action at the Extinction Rebellion Rally in London (April 2019) Here it is in full.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg-full-speech-to-mps-you-did-not-act-in-time

Links to things that have inspired me:

 https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2017/12/5a26b73b4/syrian-beekeeper-tastes-sweet-success-british-honeybee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg

http://birdgirluk.blogspot.com/

https://www.chrispackham.co.uk/the-peoples-walk-for-wildlife

Children's and YA Seasonal anthologies with heart

Today was the first properly frosty morning walking Billie who coincidentally has a Christmas day birthday. So we were both starting to feel that it was time to get in the festive spirit!

 I've never tired of that childish excitement of the season of candles, home fires and heartwarming gatherings. But I, like many of us, have never lost the sense of outrage that so many people in this frosty weather don't have a roof over their heads and that an increasing number of homeless people are children and young people. So as we approach the Christmas season we hold these great fissures in our minds. The disparity between plenty and poverty. comfort and crisis, love, joy and neglect.

I thought to bring together two Christmas and wintry anthologies that include wonderful  stories of so many of my amazing friends and colleagues in the YA and children's publishing world. Funny, heartwarming, diverse, thought provoking, emotional, humane stories from some of the most wonderful writers today who are holding this dual sensibility of the season through young eyes - alert and all seeing to both the world's woes and wonders at this time of winter celebration.

'One Snowy Night' is a new collection of animal tales for younger readers that captures the beauty  of the wintry season through truly heartwarming tales about the animal world. It's lovingly illustrated in atmospheric black and white drawings by Alison Edgson. I was delighted to be invited to write a story for younger readers with a focus on animal tales as it moves us away from - in Wordsworth's words a period of  'getting and spending' towards seeing much 'in nature that is ours.' Animals and our connection to nature can be the link to a universal human need for a magical sense of awe at the natural world.  Here is Rabina as she meets her first robin in 'Snowland' in 'One Snowy Night.'

'A Robin's Welcome is.a profoundly moving story that has many layers.'

letterpressproject.co.uk/inspiring-young-readers/2018-12-05/one-snowy-night …

'I'll Be Home for Christmas' was published in 2016 by Crisis and Stripes, for YA and teen readers. £1 of every sale goes to Crisis.

Here are Amir's thoughts  from 'Amir and George' 

'Amir and George' is re-printed in:

' A Country to Call Home' Ed. A collection of  stories by some of our most treasured YA writers. The focus of these stories is refugee experience Ed. by Lucy Propescu and illistrated by Chris Riddel

https://unbound.com/books/a-country-to-call-home/

and - 'English and Media Centre' Publication 'The Power of Voice' with KS3 curriculum resources.  

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/video-clips/ks3-language-laboratory-the-power-of-voice

Invitation from Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants hosted by Amnesty International

30th November 6.30pm

If you're looking for a heartwarming celebration of poetry, art and music that finds a way to hold the disparities of the season by celebrating our common humanity - Come along to a joyful evening celebrating the work of Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrant  at Amnesty HQ

Tickets:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/islington-centre-winter-celebration-tickets-51067152227

Wishing you a light filled festive season

Billie and Sita X