Refugees on STORMY SEAS: A Never-Ending Story

The surface of our planet is more than 70% water, so it is no surprise that a major method of transportation, throughout history, has been by boat. Whether water travel is viewed as luxurious, adventurous, necessary, worrisome, or terrifying depends largely on a person's options and reasons for travel. Certainly the vast majority of those onboard the Titanic, even the seasick, employees, and immigrants (unlikely to ever see native lands again) began their journey with the reasonable expectation of arriving safely at a US port in a matter of days. At worst, it was a temporary discomfort undertaken for a valued purpose. At best, it was a glorious adventure and a status symbol, even for those whose status was in no need of bolstering.

Certainly, none of those boarding could have imagined that an iceberg would change their perceptions and their fates in a matter of hours. 

On the other hand, a boat trip as a refugee is only undertaken with the reasonable expectation of death. Empathy alone doesn't allow us to put ourselves in the desperate-but-hopeful mindset of refugees boarding objects that bear less resemblance to boats than do the crayon sketches of toddlers. 
Refugees are people fleeing fates more horrid than we can possibly imagine. Sadly, they are real and very conceivable to the refugees themselves. That's been true throughout the plight of "boat people" spanning millennia, hemispheres, and ethnicities.

Annick Press, April, 2017

STORMY SEAS: STORIES OF YOUNG BOAT PEOPLE addresses that long history of refugees. Written by Mary Beth Leatherdale and illustrated by Eleanor Shakespeare, this picture book aimed at middle grade readers opens with a timeline of "boat people" that precedes the Mayflower. Five true stories from refugee history on the water are humanized through the eyes of actual young people:
Ruth and her family escaping Nazism; Phu fleeing war-torn Vietnam; Jose  escaping Cuba; Najeeba leaving Afghanistan and the Taliban; Mohamed, an orphan, runs from his village on the Ivory Coast. 

I agree entirely with the synopsis from Indiebound.org: 
"...Stormy Seas combines a contemporary collage-based design, sidebars, fact boxes, timeline and further reading to produce a book that is ideal for both reading and research. Readers will gain new insights into a situation that has constantly been making the headlines."
I'll go so far as to call this an extraordinary resource, compelling in content and useful as a resource to launch research. From the introductory timeline of  "boat people" who have attempted escapes through to the more recent examples, these stories all depict refugees pursuing an opportunity to make new homes in an area of North America that eventually becomes the United States. Naturally, our current global refugee crisis is dealt with at the conclusion.
My only caution is to include additional books and information in refugee discussions to balance the "America-centric" approach. There are stories of refugees with other destinations throughout the world, and of other countries who are facing the moral decicion of extending a welcoming hand or slamming shut their ports of entry.

Certainly safety and reasonable screening are necessary considerations for any nation. But our neighbor to the north, Canada, has dealt with those issues of national concern while still finding ways to offer refugees new opportunities and safe places to live. I posted a review about another recent picture book, STEPPING STONES: A REFUGEE FAMILY'S JOURNEY (here), and an extensive interview with its Canadian author, Margriet Ruers, here. If you missed those posts, I urge you to read them.

I endorse and am inspired by Anne Frank's memorable quote:

This positive view of human nature leads me forward, but history insists that human nature and nature itself are capable of unleashing devastating circumstances. These include conditions that force people to set foot aboard frighteningly fragile boats, literally and figuratively. Even the most optimistic among us must be realistic. We know that the specifics may change but  "refugee crisis" will repeat and repeat in the millennia ahead. The question should be asked of readers, while they are young, to consider fully what our response can and should be. Books like these allow them to research, debate, analyze, and empathize.

After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, conditions were so unlivable that thousands of Haitians were evacuated with special longterm visas to live in the USA.Those visas are currently under review, with their termination becoming a real possibility. This return of Haitian natives to a fragile homeland comes at the very time when conditions in Haiti are deteriorating to such a degree that residents are resorting to the high-risk boat route to reach the unwelcoming shores of our country. NPR's Weekend Edition aired a brief but very informative description of this here.

STEPPING STONES: A Picture Book Like No Other

As the clock ticks off the final minutes for authors and publishers to nominate book titles in all categories for the 2016 Cybils nominations, I find myself sitting amid piles and piles of nonfiction books for elementary and juvenile readers. In most cases I've completed a first read, although the most impressive among them aren't even recorded as "Read it" on my database. Any titles even vaguely in the running for my short list will be read and examined more than once. That close scrutiny will begin by the end of this week after nominations have closed. 

Once that process begins I'll post some reviews here and many on Goodreads, but I'll temper my comments so as not to reveal too much about the tone of our panel discussions or my personal preferences. 

As a result this will be the last full-throated review I'll post for a while. I'm free to do that because it's in praise of a book that isn't eligible for consideration this year. It was released just about a week ago, missing the deadline for 2016 consideration. Published by ORCA BOOKS, in Canada, it will be eligible for nomination next year. I've already marked my calendar for October 2017 to try to be the first to nominate the title for Cybils awards.

ORCA BOOKS, Canada, October, 2016

I seldom showcase a cover on a blog post page at this size, but the image requires your careful attention to fully appreciate. Margriet Ruurs is an author devoted to directly engaging with people around the world, listening to the stories of their lives and often incorporating those experiences into books. Among those are My Librarian Is A Camel and School Days Around the World. 

Her most recent book has an origin story all it's own, which she describes well in the author's note at the front of the book, STEPPING STONES: A Refugee Family's Journey.  Its artwork is created by Nizar Ali Badr, a stonework artist/sculptor whose creations can be seen on his Facebook page, here. He's a resident of Latakia, Syria, and his visions find expression through the stones he collects along the seashore and shallow waters. The story of Ruurs' discovery of Badr, their connection, and their joint mission is best read in the author's own words.

Within a few weeks I'll post an interview with Margriet and explore their process more fully. For now, I simply want to spotlight a book that should be read by everyone. When I say "everyone", I'm not speaking figuratively. It's published in English and Arabic, but the text and art are so well-integrated in the book design that it could be understood as a wordless book, and that's no offense to the author. Ruurs has constructed a narrative path for a universally recognizable family from their simple but safe home in Syria, through life-threatening crisis, on a journey with devastating risks and horrors, to eventual resettlement in a safe and welcoming new home. 

Interior spread from STEPPING STONES, 2016. Used with permission, ORCA Books

In one scene tiny pebbles might constitute a path; in another, harvested food, rooster feathers, birds' wings, or flower petals. Shifts in angles and joinings change the stone scenes from secure workday routines to desperate escapes and mournful memorials. Throughout it all, the continuity of family, flowers, sun and moon, despair, hope, and love call out to the reader of words and scenes. This is book that does not allow us to turn away, as we so often do when faced with the humans represented here through stone art and story. 

Composed of the stones and scraps found around the artist's feet, characters rise to life from horizontal background surfaces where they are photographed before disappearing. It's a frighteningly painful parallel to the real lives being disrupted and lost as a result of never-ending, undeclared war.

Interior spread from STEPPING STONES. Used with permission, ORCA Books.

Scene after scene expresses emotions, invites questions, and tells stories. Ruurs' text, mirrored in Arabic, unfolds the tragedy before our eyes through potent poetic phrasing and figurative fluency. Pebbles become people, people we are willing to see, and hear, and care about with more genuine empathy than society musters for the actual millions of people living (and dying) in the journeys represented here. 

I plan to gift this copy to my library and another copy to my school, with more going to family and friends during the holidays. Proceeds from the book will support Badr's art and messages from Latakia, Syria, where he continues to live and create. The author and publisher are also contributing portions of the profits from sales to refugee organizations. 

I hope everyone who becomes aware of this book will make it a personal mission to distribute it as globally as possible. Literally. The "refugee problem" is too easily viewed as a matter of millions of lives, as "too big" to fix. Until we can allow ourselves, force ourselves, to focus on the PEOPLE, on their LIVES, instead of on numbers, nothing will improve-- for us and our sense of security, or for theirs. 

This book could help us shift that focus.

A further note: Recently The MORNING EDITION on NPR presented a 4-minute report on participating in a simulated refugee experience. With the sincere hope that no one reading this will ever experience being a refugee in real life, please listen to this report.

NPR: Traveling Exhibit on Refugee Experiences.

A recent post from READING POWER GEAR suggests other titles (including this one) about refugees: HERE.

UBIQUITOUS-NESS Matters

I'll post a day early this week to focus on a major event.
Drum roll please...

lift the page on the calendar...

April has arrived, Poetry Month.

*Sigh* Brace yourself for another mini-rant on the mixed blessing of "Months"- Black History, Women's History, and now Poetry. In my opinion (and I'm far from alone in this) awareness and appreciation of poetry and the rich diversity of contributors to history should be ubiquitous.

Ubiquitous? I've been a word-aholic for as long as I can remember, but I confess (with a mix of smugness and shame) that I rarely used a dictionary. As a prolific reader from a verbal family, I was reasonably good at inferring from context. Add to that my reluctance to interrupt a good story and teachers who also valued expansive vocabularies and I was convinced that I "knew" most words. I even used them in my writing successfully (as indicated by minimal red circles or questions marks on my returned papers). I rarely looked up words, especially if they appeared frequently in text.

"Ubiquitous" is one of those words that I "knew" in a generic way- it kinda sorta meant common or regular or often, or... something like that.

Eventually I acquired enough age to slow my reading and thinking down, to appreciate nuance and precision (obsessive, I am; perfectionist, I am not). That's when I began to "look up" words and found out why the word ubiquitous is so... so... ubiquitous. (adjective: everywhere, omnipresent).

Which brings me to UBIQUITOUS: CELEBRATING NATURE'S SURVIVORS, with Poetry by Joyce Sidman and illustrations by Beckie Prange. (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010).
Every detail of this book deserves attention, beginning where else- with the end papers. The challenge of creating a timeline for the 4.6 billion year history of planet Earth, to scale, is daunting. A densely swirled and convoluted line fills the double page spread of this large format book, each centimeter equaling a million years. Sweeping timespans from the emergence of bacteria to mollusks, lichens, sharks, beetles, diatoms, geckos, ants, grasses, squirrels, crows dandelions, coyotes, and humans actually make some sense with this accurately rendered and labeled art.

Each page turn after that offers parallel text- a poem paired with accessible scientific narration- embedded in equally beautiful and informative illustrations. Together they offer insight and praise to Earth's ubiquitous survivors over millions of years, to the living things so "omnipresent" that we overlook their amazing success. Precise vocabulary serves both the science and the poetry well, supported by a glossary, author's note, and illustrator's note.

(Patience. I'll tie this all together soon. We're on the home stretch now.)

This book, spotlighting Earth's ubiquitous survivors, should not be overlooked. Nor should poetry. Thus, Poetry Month has its place.

For a little inspiration, and daily links, follow Gottabook, a blog by Greg Pincus, to share his annual 30 Poets/30 Days. He features a different kids' poetry superstar each and every day, some of whom even share original creations for this project.

Do you know any kids who like to write poetry? (Or some who don't?) Check the KIdsWWWrite site edited by Margriet Ruurs. It's a safe and supportive opportunity for kids to publish their work, and even reluctant writers love to do that.

While you're online stop by several other poetry sites, each of which can become addictive habits for you and for kids. First, a resource for you, is PoetryAtPlay.org. Then, for you and for kids, visit GigglePoetry.com and Poetry4Kids.com.

Since April is Poetry Month, seize it. Dive in with both feet using UBIQUITOUS and countless other picture books (to be named soon). Cram every nook and cranny of space and time available (and unavailable- it's POETRY MONTH-duh) with poems of every size, shape, and topic. Make it ubiquitous. And then keep it that way, all throughout the year.