“Oksana, we deeply apologize but we cannot let children out from the bomb shelter for the reading time. Today we have air raids one after another, ” messages the teacher to me the minute I sit down by the computer with children’s books in my hands still deciding which book might be better to read aloud to 2nd graders. I am ready to meet with kids via zoom, our read aloud is about to start. “We are sorry but it looks like we can’t even reschedule this reading,” adds the teacher after 15 minutes. “We are afraid tomorrow will be similar…”

To get messages like this is not a rare thing these days for me as an author and scholar of children’s literature. Classes are delayed, meetings are rescheduled, events are cancelled a number of times. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Ukrainian educators and their students are trying to re-learn how to make possible a solid education for Ukrainian children in the time of war. This is also right after COVID, which already had significant impact on education quality in Ukraine.

Despite difficulties and instabilities, children’s literature enthusiasts managed to organize about 40-45 read alouds for me during which I read to Ukrainian children my own books and books of other Ukrainian authors. This taught me many lessons on how to read with children who live in extraordinary difficult circumstances. Moreover, this experience showed me what book preferences children have while going through extremely dark times (quite literally).

In this short article I would like to share key takeaways  from my experience reading books to Ukrainian children through these turbulent and unstable two years. First, it is important to note that my preparation for read alouds always took a lot of time, because from the first read alouds I came to understand that children’s reading preferences highly depended upon:

I learned how to manage these three major issues by having with me a few different kinds of books as options: funny books about dogs/cats, hybrid fictional/informational biography books about famous Ukrainians, and some realistic fiction books about war experience.

What about us, educators and enthusiasts of children’s literature,  here in the USA? How is everything mentioned above relevant to our reading choices?
 
I believe we can borrow three major points from my experience reading books aloud to children in Ukraine.

1. Challenges of unknown (such as war, disaster, etc.) bring to sharp relief the need to live, learn and laugh for here and now. Thus, if you are working with children who might be going though difficult and traumatic times, try to bring some laugh and easiness, some playfulness and whimsy into your read alouds;
2. “Teach children about life, not about death,” says Tania Stus, the leader of Barabooka, a Ukrainian portal for Children’s Books. When conversations about wounded people and loss are literary in the air, it is important not to forget a philosophy of vitalism. Books about life and the vitality of people are important in your reading choices; always make space for them in the classroom and/or reading time.
3. Be ready to talk about feelings and emotions. Try to equip yourself with at least some basic understanding of how you respond, not react, in a moment of a challenging emotional appeal. It might be useful to always have the possibility to reconnect with how children feel in a few days.

 
In their article for Time Magazine, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Oliver Jeffers state, “We exist in a place where all the problems of the universe are present” and note that, nowadays, we should not to think of ourselves just as individuals – but rather we need to teach our children to have a mindset that we are all interconnected. Similar to Jella Lepman (1891-1970), a German journalist, author, and translator who founded the International Youth Library in Munich right after WWII, I believe that children’s books are couriers of peace and support. Thus, “if children read books from other countries, they would realize that they share common human values and strive to preserve them.” Inspired by this, I have a proposal to all the children’s literature enthusiasts who are planning to talk about the two years of Russian’s invasion to Ukraine, which for sure will be widely discussed on the news and mass media this February: You can bring a fabulous supportive experience for the young readers in your classrooms and reading circles by sharing books!

Lepman, J. (2002). A bridge of children’s books: the inspiring autobiography of a remarkable woman. Dublin, Ireland: The O’Brien Press, Ltd.
Rivett-Carnac, T., & Jeffers, O. (2023). Choose your stories well. Time, 2023(1–2).
Romanyshyn, R., Lesiv A. (2022). How War Changed Rondo. New York: Enchanted Lion Books.

It takes a village to heal warriors – and it takes a warrior to teach the village how” state Raymond Monsour Scurfield and Katherine Theresa Platoni in their scholarly text Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches.

Following the horrific news from Ukraine, an independent, rapidly developing country located in eastern Europe, US educators and literature advocates seek tools to facilitate starting conversations about the devastating effects of war on humanity and the support every individual can offer, regardless of where they are.

Children’s books can serve as a great tool to start deliberate, responsible conversations through classroom dialogue. Jella Lepman (1891-1970), a German journalist, author, and translator who founded the International Youth Library in Munich right after WWII, believed that children’s books are couriers of peace. She was certain that if children read books from other countries, they would realize that they share common human values and strive to preserve them.

I believe that we, as global-minded educators and literature advocates, should, to use Scurfield and Platoni’s words, become warriors of peace; peacemakers who prepare our children to grow into wise, understanding, and sympathetic global citizens who have the will and the capacity to heal the world. Being originally from Ukraine and witnessing this horrific war unfolding in my country, where all my family and friends live, I feel the cruciality of this duty urgently and viscerally. Thus, I want to bring to your attention the picturebook How War Changed Rondo, which is a Ukrainian export. The book has been recognized as a Kirkus Best Book of 2021 and as a USBBY Outstanding International Book of 2022.

Interestingly, this book was created by the Ukrainian book creators Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv in 2014. The book won the 2015 Bologna Ragazzi Award, which is one of the most prestigious European Awards in children’s literature. I translated this book as soon as it was written. It was an imperative for me to bring it to the attention of English-speaking readers as it highlights a vital turning point in Ukraine's independent history: Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of the eastern part of Ukraine in 2014 (Ukraine has been an independent country since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991). I also felt responsibility to share with global young readers that we, as human beings, all want peace and democracy; we want to create and to thrive. In the picturebook, through the fictionalized characters, Danko (a light bulb), Fabian (a pink balloon dog), and Zirka (an origami bird), Romanyshyn and Lesiv depict the horrors of invasion of one’s own country, the impact of war, and the destruction in brings to everyone.

When I translated the text, I brought it to my classroom. It was 2015 and I taught a Children’s Literature course at the University of Georgia. When my students, who were future educators, read the text of  How War Changed Rondo (the book was not yet published in the US), their empathy was sharp and deep. What’s important to know – I read the text without showing them the illustrations, so they could imagine the characters by themselves. After the reading, I invited them to write down their responses or/and to draw them. In particular, I invited them to imagine who the characters of the book are and what their injuries might look like. This was a very fruitful experience that further connected my students emotionally with the text and grounded their empathy. Finally, I showed them Andriy Lesiv’s original illustrations and they were touched by the perspective they created. You can use a similar approach  when reading this picturebook in your classroom, or you can do it your own way. The possibilities are endless. You might also like to pair it with a short professional animated video of The War That Changed Rondo recently done by Chervony Sobaka (Red Dog Studio). This will be a good set to bring an intelligent perspective on such an important topic.

​References
Lepman, J. (2002). A bridge of children’s books: the inspiring autobiography of a remarkable woman. Dublin, Ireland: The O’Brien Press, Ltd.
Romanyshyn, R., Lesiv A., How War Changed Rondo. New York: Enchanted Lion Books.
Scurfield, R. M., Platoni, K. Th. (2012). Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches. New York: Routledge.