Tales of Two Torn Cities
Gerard Whelan
The Guns of Easter
O’Brien Press, 1996
Paperback, 166pp, €8.99
ISBN 978-0-86278-449-2
and
Elizabeth Laird
Oranges in No Man’s Land
Macmillan Children’s Books, 2006
Paperback, 116pp. £6.99 / €8.70
ISBN 978-0-330-44558-0
A difficult subject, war remains a common theme in children’s books. Such adventure stories appeal to writers and readers because they suddenly place you in the shoes of characters facing extremely bad situations, while their historical settings provide a safe distance to explore highly emotional experiences. They also offer a subtle way of examining what adults deem important.
With so many tales set during war, from The Iliad to World Wars I and II and even more recent conflicts, it’s natural that war novels share similarities. Consider Gerard Whelan’ The Guns of Easter, and Elizabeth Laird’s Oranges in No Man’s Land. Whelan’s is the first in a trilogy exploring Ireland’s Easter Rising, War of Independence, and Civil War, while Laird’s stand-alone piece happens during the Civil War in Lebanon. Both relate adventures of a child protagonist navigating unavoidable, dangerous excursions.
In Whelan’s book it’s 1916 and Jimmy Conway’s dad is away, fighting in the British Army. His Uncle Mick is with the Rebels, and his mother works hard to keep the family going. Set over the days just before and during the Easter Rising, the twelve-year-old’s loyalties are divided as he crosses the city, dodging army patrols, shootings, and disruption. Desperate to find food for his family, Jimmy encounters good and bad on all sides, and acquires a more mature understanding of himself and his relatives, and the struggles of his country.
Laird’s protagonist, ten-year-old Ayesha, must cross the Green Line on a forbidden journey through civil-war Beirut to get much needed medicine for her granny. This book also depicts delicate and long-established relationships between individuals from different religious and ethnic backgrounds damaged by a forcibly divided society.
Both books have many parallels. Their naive protagonists must both find paths through a war-torn city, negotiating with individuals on different factions of the conflict, while simultaneously finding everything familiar becoming unfamiliar and unexplainable. Missing parents, divided families and communities, changing loyalties, taking risks for loved ones, and a discovery of common humanity on all sides of a deadly conflict: these are recurring tropes in Jimmy’s and Ayesha’s exploits.
Although set during conflicts decades apart, in cities 3000 miles from each other, both novels follow the classic structure of children’s adventure stories, with realistic, sympathetic depictions of characters and settings. They are enthralling, immersive books that deserve to be widely read.
While Guns of Easter is for a slightly more advanced readership, with Oranges in No Man’s Land being shorter and having fewer historical facts to comprehend, it’s rewarding to explore both simultaneously with children. Together they work well in mixed-ability classes of intermediate readers.
Pat Ryan
Mucking About | John Chambers | Little Island Books 2018
John Chambers
Mucking About
Little Island Books 2018
ISBN 9-781912417056
Although set in Ireland’s legendary past, plenty of modern readers will recognise and be much amused by the misadventures of Manchán, his best friend Pagan-of-the-Six-Toes, and his know-it-all older sister Méabh. Each of the six fun-filled chapters relate mad escapades of a boy and his family who ‘lived when old ways were changing in Ireland and new ways were just getting started.’
His mother has plans for Manchán to be educated by Brother Abstemius, his uncle, and become a monk. However, the boy has other ideas for his future, ones that include keeping company with Muck (his pet pig), making up songs like his dad, and messing about with Pagan in local forests and on nearby lakes.
But as his mother says, ‘The world is always coming at us, in good ways and sometimes in bad ways too. It is best we are prepared for both.’ They reach a compromise. Manchán agrees to try-out the monastery for a year, learning music, and reading and writing, and all things useful that the monks may impart, on condition that he has Muck for company and regular visits from Pagan (but not Méabh).
While there’s the odd anachronism here and there, jumbling up druids and monks and Vikings, Chambers makes the past accessible, relatable, and fun. The book is great for readers transitioning into chapter books, with a friendly map and glossary to help with unfamiliar Irish words or aspects of history. Chambers, an Irish cartoonist, screenwriter, illustrator, and author based in Berlin, has other popular books that children will enjoy as a follow-up to this one.
Pat Ryan
Call for volunteers IBBY Camp
Project “Silent books: from the world to Lampedusa and back”
All IBBY volunteers who would like to help and support us in inventing new ways of using and enjoying books, can take part in the continuing development of the IBBY library in Lampedusa, which was inaugurated on 16 September 2017.
At a time of uncertainty and change and many migration and integration issues in all our countries, the IBBY library in Lampedusa invites all who are interested in using books as tools for change to come together in Lampedusa. We have to learn and understand what new challenges and possibilities can be gained from this experience.
From Monday, 4 to Saturday, 10 November we are going to Lampedusa to work together on how to create a community library that is at the same time international and local; normal and yet extraordinary. We will discuss and understand and learn from each other.
We will be keeping in mind not only Lampedusa, but also every other place that is a frontier, that has a population of children who need to have opportunities opened up for them for their futures.
Every idea is welcome; every suggestion is considered and assessed. The aims of the IBBY Camp are to:
- promote reading in the Lampedusa Library
- find new ways of working with books and displaced children
- teach a way of being ready to learn from a community
- learn everything there is to know about Silent Books
- meet other passionate IBBY/ book people
- understand more about migration in the Mediterranean.
Librarians, students and those who have experience – you are all invited to Lampedusa, together with authors and illustrators also taking part. During this training week we will set up meetings and readings with the children, sharing every experience with everyone who is participating.
The voluntary workers who keep the library open and functioning all year round are waiting for us, as well as all those who discover that the first real place of culture and welcome in their journey across the Mediterranean is the Lampedusa Library.
All those interested in taking part should contact IBBY for further information.
With kind regards,
Deborah Soria
Project Manager, Italian Section of IBBY
FB BIBLIOTECA IBBY LAMPEDUSA
HOW TO JOIN US IN LAMPEDUSA
How to organize your trip to Lampedusa
Please note that travelling and accommodation are at the expense of the participant, no reimbursement is possible.
By plane:
Direct connections to Lampedusa are available from the Italian airport of Palermo (Sicily) throughout the year. However, the booking service to and from Lampedusa can often be temporarily unavailable. We suggest that you book your flight to Palermo in advance and then buy your ticket to Lampedusa later on. The flights Palermo-Lampedusa are at a fixed cost with no discounts for early booking.
By boat:
A daily direct connection to Lampedusa sails from Porto Empedocle (Agrigento, Sicily). The boat leaves at 23.59 every day and the journey last nearly 9 hours. However, the service is cancelled whenever there is bad weather.
How to find an accommodation
There are many hotels, residences and bed & breakfast offers on the island. Please book something close to “ via Roma 34” the address of the Lampedusa Library
Confirm your attendance
After booking your flight, please send a confirmation email to soria.deb@gmail.com. We will then send you a form to fill in to confirm attendance. You should send your confirmation before 29 September 2019.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes: you can come with your family! Children are welcome.
Yes: you can attend IBBY Camp only for a few days if you cannot stay all week.
No: you are not requested to spend all your time on the project – choose a comfortable mix between holiday and IBBY Camp! But, yes, please, let us know which days and for how many hours you can volunteer.
No: IBBY Italia is not responsible for the organization of your trip.
Yes: if you want to organize workshops or other activities, please write to us and we can discuss and coordinate how to include them in the programme.
No: refunds are not available, all activities are organized on voluntary basis.
Yes: IBBY Italia will provide all materials needed for the activities, such as paper, scissors, glue, coloured paints and pencils, etc.
For more information, please contact Deborah Soria: soria.deb@gmail.com
We look forward to meeting you on Lampedusa!
IBBY Italia
International Board on Books for Young People
Ufficio stampa (press) Maddalena Lucarelli: lucarelli.maddalena@gmail.com
IBBY Italia Secretariat: scrivi@ibbyitalia.com, http://www.ibbyitalia.it