The story of Syrian refugees for German children

No matter which way you turn these days there appear to be people just looking for reasons to hate on Syrian refugees.
Suspicion and fear, as well as outright bigotry, have inflamed passions regarding refugees in many places and children often find themselves in the middle of arguments they don’t even understand.
All of the information and misinformation can be hard for adults to process let alone be understood by young children. But from the time a child is old enough to pick up a book, he is able to figure some things out for himself with the help of simple stories.
German author Kirsten Boie, who has written more than 60 books for children and teenagers, says that she was inspired to write her latest book about Syrian refugees when Syrian families began moving into the neighborhood in which she lives in 2015.
Boie, who lives in a town on the outskirts of Germany’s second largest city of Hamburg, explained in an interview with PRI in June that there are two different extremes that exist in Germany regarding the thousands of Syrian refugees who have entered the country in the past few years.
On the one hand, there are many Germans who welcome the refugees and have bent over backwards in helping them to adapt to the new lives they have found in a foreign land − and on the other hand there are those who are adamantly opposed to the influx of foreigners who have invaded their homeland.
Boie says that she wrote her book to be a teaching tool. By providing children with a simplified story that helps them to understand a complex moral issue, she hopes to provide some gentle guidance for those who find themselves caught in the middle.
Armed with a better understanding of how and why Syrians left their own homeland and ended up in Germany, for example, helps children to figure out for themselves how they should treat refugees and what they should do.
Most children are capable of a great deal of empathy for their peers when they are able to imagine themselves in their shoes.
In her latest book, Everything Will Be Alright, Boie tells the story of Rahaf and her family, who are forced to flee from their own home in city of Homs in Syria due to bombings by war planes.
Along the way Rahaf loses her dearest possession − a teddy bear which has been a source of comfort and security − which is something many children can relate to.
Based on the true story of a refugee family Boie has gotten to know in Germany, the book describes in words and pictures how they cross the Mediterranean Sea in a small boat and ultimately reach a small town near Hamburg, Germany where they begin to build a new life.
For security and privacy reasons Boie masked the identities of the real family upon which her story is based and says that they have already become a permanent part of her life and are adjusting well to their new surroundings.
Everything Will Be Alright has been published in both German and Arabic and is intended to be read in schools to German-born students as well as their new immigrant neighbors. An English translation of Boie’s book can also be found online.

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