Every child growing up must think about the conflicts of the world around them. Just like about war, there is no need to avoid talking to children, after all, children's understanding of grief does not start suddenly one day after they grow up.
Ukrainian refugees wait at the platform of Lviv Railway Station for a train bound for Poland on February 27, 2022.
In recent days, the war between Russia and Ukraine has become the most hotly discussed topic. "What is war?" "Why fight?" "What will the local children do?" Children are full of questions about war. How to talk to your children about war, recommend a few children's books about war, and help children understand the world.
"The Day the War Comes"
In the spring of 2016, the British government refused to provide shelter to 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees. Around the same time, author Nikolai Davis heard a story about a child refugee who was turned away from school because he didn't have a chair she sat in. Based on this story, she created the story poem, which was initially published on the Guardian's website, with illustrations of an empty chair created by artists Jackie Morris and Peter Horacek.
In the days that followed, hundreds of people posted pictures of empty chairs online to express their support for children who had lost everything, were homeless and unable to get an education. The story told by author Nikolai Davis from the perspective of a child refugee wants to remind everyone that kindness has great power and can bring us hope for a better future.
Anne Frank: The Girl in the Chamber of Secrets
Anne Frank, a Jewish girl born in Frankfurt, Germany, was one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust in World War II and was named to Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World in the 20th Century" in 1999.
Anne's personal experiences in World War II were recorded in a diary of her 13th birthday gift, which became a famous testimony to the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II.
After the arrest of the Anne family, the diary was discovered and preserved by Mip Guise, and in 1952 after World War II, it was republished as The Diary of Anne Anne, which became one of the most distributed books in the world.
This picture book tells the story of the pre-birth of Anne Frank's Diary. From growing up in Germany to fleeing to the Netherlands with her family, hiding from the Nazis for years in the Chamber of Secrets, to being taken away from the Chambers by the Nazis, it tells the story of how Anne, an ordinary little girl, lived such a tragic and short life. The book doesn't touch on the gruesome details of the Holocaust of World War II, presenting a dark history in a way that children can understand and accept. Brave and strong in the midst of difficulties, with hope for the future, the growth process of a young girl is told, just like a young girl's meditation around war, family and family.
The War of Alain
The author, Emmanuel Guibert, rose to prominence in the "French New Comics" movement in the 1990s and became one of the few cartoonists who was popular with readers and favored by experts and judges. In June 1994, he met Alain, an American veteran, on the street, and the two saw each other at the same time. It took fourteen years to draw the old man's "World War II" trilogy with water and Chinese ink.
This book is different from the "World War II" theme stories we are accustomed to, and it is also different from the ordinary "comics" in our established impressions: there is no romance and no heroes; it is highly realistic but poetic. It is an ordinary soldier's "World War II Spiritual History", a documentary and poetic ink painting scroll.
The Field Cook and the Half Soldier
Netizens said that this is a fable that transcends the times and age to expose the absurdity of war. "A field cook with great cooking would love to keep fighting so he can always have a job. Until one day, a little boy named George, who had lost his legs, appeared in his kitchen, shattering his peaceful life and changing everything..."
The well-known Dutch children's book writer Benny Lindelauf discusses the topic of war with a legendary story, and writes the absurdity of the outbreak and end of war to the fullest, both like an eternal allegory about human nature, and like a song of mourning but not hurt, which can make readers calmly and objectively see the essence of war, and at the same time be more moved by the light of human nature that war cannot crush.
Different from other works that show war, the rendering of the battlefield and the incitement of emotions, this novel uses white painting techniques to outline the appearance of people in war, expressing neatness, restraint, intuitiveness, and there is no lack of humor and warmth in the coldness, so that readers are both shocked by the absurdity of war, and not only trapped in sadness or anger, but also able to relieve emotions, so as to think independently and rationally.
Writer Xu Zhiyuan's feedback, "Bizarre characters, absurd events, and overhead history constitute a labyrinth of words." The extraordinary friendship between George the Creep and the cook Towott, through the cruelty of war, returns to an awakened conscience and gentle humanity. This book will tell children that war is cold and cruel, and people, even if they are rough and dirty on the outside, even if they are disabled and broken, have warmth inside. ”
Guardians of the Children: The Story of Januszkozak
To understand war is to cherish peace. This is a picture book of the biography of the famous Polish children's educator and writer Janusz Kozak. Janusz Kozak lived in war-torn Warsaw, where he witnessed hardship and poverty. His wish since childhood was to protect poor children and improve their lives.
At the outbreak of World War II, he was imprisoned with the children of the orphanage in the Jewish Quarter, where he continued to live for the children's lives and wrote the famous "Jewish Diary". Kozak and the children eventually died in the concentration camp. His lifelong commitment to the protection of children's rights has profoundly influenced countries around the world. The Convention on the Rights of the Child promulgated by the United Nations in 1989 was shaped by his doctrine.