Through My Eyes

I am a news junkie, but there are days when I can’t bear to see or hear any more bad news. War, conflict, terrorism, sectarian violence, asylum seekers…it’s everywhere you turn.

It’s an odd thing that we are now so connected to the rest of the world, but it is so easy to be detached from others. We are in many ways – in economics, technology, climate – global citizens. We are all to some degree affected by war, revolution or even natural disaster in other places. Conflicts in Sri Lanka and the Middle East come to Australia in the form of people making the perilous journey, sometimes on leaky old boats, to seek asylum. We see these desperate people on our screens, with headlines about Stopping the Boats and various Solutions to deal with them. The public debate about asylum seekers has long carried an unpleasant, cold-hearted tone.

So if we are global citizens with some sense of empathy for our fellow citizens, how do we get beyond the politicised messages that are thrown at us? How do we get beyond the stereotypes and see ourselves in the Other?

Lyn White and Rosanne Hawke are making a start. They have just released the first book, Shahana, in a children’s series called Through My Eyes, published by Allen & Unwin. Each book will tell a story about living through a contemporary conflict – through the eyes of a child. The stories are fictional, but based firmly in reality, and emphasise the resilience, courage and perseverance of children in the face of often terrible odds. 

Lyn began working on bringing the series to life several years ago while studying at the University of Melbourne, which is where I met her. The first book is testament to her vision and determination to publish books that engage students with the courageous plight of children living in conflict zones.

Shahana tells the story of an orphan and her little brother who live close to the border separating the two sides of Kashmir. Reading the book, I was dismayed at the challenges children come up against just to survive in this war zone. Never mind school, Shahana’s daily struggles are all to do with keeping warm and finding and paying for food.

The region of Kashmir has endured over 50 years of conflict. Image courtesy of BBC News.

This book deals with a lot of important themes. Rosanne Hawke lived in the Middle East for a decade as an aid worker. Her lived experience and knowledge of the Kashmir region is reflected in the believability of Shahana’s story; this book is very well-researched and not overly sanitised for young readers (the target age group is 11 to 14 years). Initially I wondered whether children would be turned off by the harshness of Shahana’s existence. Many children I know couldn’t comprehend having to work rather than go to school, or live with an omnipresent fear of being attacked by men with guns.

But if we are forever shielding children from the realities of human conflict, then maybe we are doing them, their future selves and the world – not to mention children living in conflict – an injustice. Shahana introduces children to war and conflict in  a way that allows them to talk about it and process it. They can discuss the serious issues with their parents, teachers and their friends. After all, they are reading about conflict; they are not living in it.

I hope that this series takes off in schools around Australia. We need to hear more voices like Shahana’s. I think back to my favourite children’s books and most of them challenged me with a new perspective or difficult themes. I never read one like Shahana when I was a child, but I wish that I had.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favourite authors, who has written a few notable ‘children’s’ books:

There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children’s book. – Philip Pullman