Kyo Maclear, Author. Rashin Kheiriyeh, illustrator. Tundra Books, 2020.

Child migrants find comfort in their few, consistent items while their sense of place changes daily. The items become part of their story–that which is real and that which is dreamt about as they travel to find a new place to call home.

The anxiousness, lengthiness, and storminess of immigration are all told, yet the story holds a lightheartedness. There is singing, reading, drawing, making, playing, and writing. The cat on every page adds whimsy and the simple colour pallet provides sense of calm, as do the gentle, lyrical prose.

“This cup is a home, and this blanket is a sail, and this lamp is a lighthouse, and this flower is a ladder, and this story is a boat.”

And their story carries the children perpetually forward in this age-appropriate and hope-filled glimpse into a migrant’s journey.