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."
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