Friday, November 08, 2013

Young artists respond to conflict: new book launch

Drawings and paintings by the UK’s best young artists were published today (7 November) in a new picture book entitled The Day the Bombs Fell, as the culmination of a UK-wide illustration competition jointly launched by disaster relief charity ShelterBox and national charity The Reading Agency’s Chatterbooks network of children’s reading groups.

The Day the Bombs Fell – unveiled at a special event in London today at the Free Word Centre – is the latest in a series of books that vividly bring to life natural and man-made disasters, helping primary school age children to express their feelings and explore their responses to world news.
This is the fourth annual illustration competition organised by the two charities, which each year has focussed on a different type of disaster that ShelterBox has responded to: this year’s theme is ‘conflict’. It has been spearheaded once again by renowned author and illustrator Michael Foreman, who created his own evocative image to publicise the competition and selected the winning entries along with author Claire White. Michael, who also treated the young winners to a unique illustration workshop at today’s book launch event, spoke of his own early childhood memories during World War Two, of an incendiary bomb falling on his family's home. It narrowly missed his bed and finally landed in the fireplace, forcing him and his family to flee overnight to a nearby air-raid shelter. "When I see the news from Syria and the images of bombs falling on houses, they have a very close echo for me," he said.

He added: Putting words and pictures together can be a powerful combination. Children respond to this at a very early age and swiftly start to do it themselves. You might think that ‘conflict’ would have been an unattractive topic, but our young entrants this year have produced dynamic, touching and really rather beautiful images. There was no sense of the 'glory' of battle – virtually all sympathized with the victims, the innocent.”

The competition challenged teachers and children to explore a story about conflict and bring it to life with their pictures, giving them a unique opportunity to understand how a disaster like this might affect families and communities involved. It coincides with ShelterBox’s newly-launched £2 million campaign to raise awareness of the plight of Syrian refugees, in particular children who have been affected: £1 from the sale of each copy of The Day the Bombs Fell will be going to help provide shelter for Syrian refugee families.

Rebecca Swist, a ShelterBox emergency response team member told attendees in words and pictures, the story of 12 year old Ahkmed, who used to live in Damascus. When a bomb dropped on his house he and his brothers were forced to run away, walking for six days to get to a place where they would be safe -- a refugee camp on the Syrian border. The camp provided safety, but there were no playgrounds or places for Ahkmed and other children to play or have any fun. But the emergency boxes which ShelterBox delivers around the world and which had been delivered to Akhmed’s camp include an orange backpack containing chalks, a blackboard, pencils and school equipment. These enabled Ahkmed and children in the camp not only to have some fun and be a little bit happier, but also to continue their learning, as the materials were used in the schools that were starting up in the camp.

ShelterBox chief executive Alison Wallace, said: “"We hope The Day the Bombs Fell will help children to understand some of the causes of conflict and the impact it has on children around the world and their families. This book project gives children a chance to explore their feelings about and reactions to conflict, and also to be reassured by the presence and work of charities like ShelterBox in reaction to conflicts and emergencies around the world. It provides an appropriate way to talk to children about conflict."


·         The Day the Bombs Fell can be bought from the ShelterBox online shop www.shelterboxshop.org.uk/

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