Flightlines: exploring early readers for children about the refugee experience

Much has been written about children’s literature that deals with war, and specifically the holocaust, but very little has been said about the portrayal of the refugee experience in children’s books, which is now developing as a significant genre of its own. The rapid growth in these books, which are aimed at all ages, has not been documented separately and yet there are compelling messages that derive from them about citizenship, tolerance, respect and integration, and well as the enduring nature of the human spirit in the face of terrible circumstances. In this article I will be focussing particularly on books about the refugee experience written for the younger reader, and their suitability for the age group they are aimed at.