Text: Barbara Gawryluk
Illustrations: Maciej Szymanowicz
8+
48 pages
Hardcover
16,5 x 23,5 cm
(Literatura)
Rights sold: Ukrainian, German
The book belongs to the series BIG PEOPLE´S WARS, SMALL PEOPLE´S STORIES
When things get more and more dangerous in Donetsk and the first tanks hit the streets, the Baranowski family decides to evacuate from Ukraine, organized by the Polish authorities. A warm welcome in a refugee camp sweetens Romek’s and his siblings’ stay in a new place, but the children miss their grandparents and ask when they will return home. Unfortunately, it will not happen soon, so the whole family learns Polish so that children can go to school and parents to work. Romek slowly begins to understand that their home is now to be here. But he doesn’t know yet whether he likes it or not.
The story of one of the families from Donetsk who was forced by the war in Ukraine to flee their home. Since the (Polish-Ukrainian) family wants to remain anonymous to assimilate with the Poles as soon as possible, we do not provide their surnames or the name of the city where they will settle.
„I did not think that the story I wrote in 2016 would become relevant again after a few years.
New friends come to your schools and kindergartens. Sometimes it is difficult to get along with them because they speak a language that we do not fully understand, some do not want to speak at all. They have had passages that are difficult to imagine, often their houses do not exist anymore, they have been destroyed by bombs, and they have fled to us to look for peace. In Poland, they sometimes find a stop in wandering, but surely many of them will stay with us for longer, maybe permanently.
Ukraine, our neighbor, needs help. What Polish children can offer is cordiality, friendship, and forbearance in kindergarten, school, and backyard. This is what the book is about.”
Barbara Gawryluk
