New picture books from German publishers introduce children to themes relating to refugees, war and xenophobia.
One thing is certain: their lives are at risk if they stay at home. However different their origins and individual fates may be, they come together and set off on a journey. This is how The Bremen Town Musicians, one of the best-known German fairy-tales from the Brothers Grimm collection, begins – and calls to mind the fate that currently unites hundreds of thousands of refugees. Even the rallying cry expressed by the donkey in the Brothers Grimm version, something that is missing from many later versions of the fairy-tale for children, may well apply to them too: “Something better than death we can find anywhere.”
Escape, banishment and unpredictable journeys are important themes in Grimm’s fairy-tales. No matter how relevant to the social challenges of our times some of their motives may sound, however, contemporary publications are without doubt better suited to gently introducing nursery-age and pre-school children to such big issues. Publishing houses in Germany have brought out a whole host of picture books about refugees and foreignness. They provide an opportunity to discuss these matters with children and promote understanding – ideally for the problems faced by both the refugees and the people of the country in which they ultimately arrive.
Poetical game with foreign words
In Am Tag, als Saída zu uns kam (The Day Saída Arrived), a picture book by Susana Gómez Redondo with illustrations by Sonja Wimmer that was published by the Peter Hammer Verlag in February 2016, a lively and exuberant young girl tells about the arrival of a taciturn and sad girl of her own age from Morocco. “The day Saída arrived, I knew immediately that I would always like her”, she explains on one of the first pages. Eventually she finds out that her new friend may not be mute after all: “Perhaps she simply didn’t want to speak her language because it was different to ours.” The two girls point at things and name them, learning from one another, and the new friend takes pleasure in the Arabic letters, the way the language is written from right to left, and its sound. This mutual process of discovery becomes a poetical game with dream-like images full of words and characters that also bring the two girls ever closer together: how easy and pleasant it can be too overcome one’s foreignness when one knows straightaway that one will like each other.
The Arabic translation of the story is provided in the bottom half of each page, and a first few words and sentences in both languages can be found at the end – from “What is your name?” and “Do you want to?” to “Do you want to be my friend?”. Phrases like “Leave me in peace!” and “I don’t want to!” are also included, however. As such, Bestimmt wird alles gut is not only about a new beginning in a foreign country, but also helps make a new beginning of this kind somewhat easier.