I know I had been thinking about the vastness of the world, and the smallness of the camps and detention centres. I know I had done more kitchen table gazing, to no avail. I know I had been down at the river with my own children, climbing trees, blowing on dandelion seeds and making wishes. I can't quite remember how the idea of a wisp came to me. This was exactly the audience I wanted to reach.īut how could I show these brilliantly, enthusiastic young people the reality of life in a refugee camp without destroying their very belief in the world? And how could I pay respect to the millions of real life victims and survivors without showing the horrific conditions they are living in? How could I help bring their voices to our ears and at least try to create some sort of bridge between our two worlds? They unhesitantly demand answers to all the unasked questions, poking and prodding at all the details hidden in the shadows until their curiosity is sated - for the time being. They gladly jump inside another's skin and parade about, exploring lives and existences so different from their own with infectious enthusiasm and wonder. Twisted into nothing more than statistics to be batted about and used for political gain.Īnd I also knew that young children, with their wonderfully wide open minds and ability to imagine worlds we adults can't even try to conceive, are the perfect readers. I wanted to give voice to those who had been silenced, so we know to listen for the real voices, and the real stories of the real people, who for too long have been silenced. I wanted to for the same reason I wrote The Bone Sparrow and The Ones That Disappeared. I stood at the kitchen table, unable to fathom how I would undertake this challenge. It was my publishers at Hachette who asked me to write a picture book about a child growing up in a refugee camp. When The Bone Sparrow author Zana Fraillon was asked to write a picture book about refugees, she had no idea how to start. 'A story of hope': Zana Fraillon on how she wrote a picture book about refugees

Bone sparrow the fraillon