When the government refused to allow 3000 child refugees to enter this country in 2016, Nicola Davies was so angry she wrote a poem. It started a campaign for which artists contributed drawings of chairs, symbolising a seat in a classroom, education, kindness, the hope of a future.
The poem has become this book, movingly illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, which should prove a powerful aid for explaining the ongoing refugee crisis to younger readers.
With Rebecca's characterful illustrations, the story takes on new meaning as the little girl in the story continues to live through experiences no child should ever have to suffer. As a father with a daughter of my own, there was really only one way to tackle reviewing this book. We cuddled up together, we read it, we both cried and instantly knew that just as the campaign that spawned it, this book was vital, important and should become a mainstay when trying to describe the atrocities of war and the migrant crisis to children of all ages.
It's particularly strong and effective for younger children who are now more aware of what goes on in the world than we ever were as kids, clinging to smidgeons of news shared on John Craven's Newsround, or gleaned from grown-up newspapers. If anything, picture books as a medium have become a hugely powerful force for good as they begin to sensitively convey important issues concerning all of us, just as "The Day the War Came" does.
We've been huge fans of Nicola and Rebecca for years and we think this is one of their finest pieces of work by far.
"The Day the War Came" by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb is out now, published by Walker Books (kindly supplied in digital format for review).