Above All, the Children
Russian authorities, Masha Gessen tells us in her New Yorker article, have banned words like “war” or “invasion” to describe what they want to call a “special operation” in Ukraine. Whatever they may choose to call it, it’s about walking into someone else’s home and suggesting that it’s not a home at all, and the people in it are not who they think they are.
And what about the children? I’m reminded of the Ukrainian folktale retold in America by Jan Brett in her beloved book, The Mitten. About the story, Jan Brett says:
I got the idea from a few teachers! They thought I would like to draw the animals and the snowy scenery in this folktale. Then I did research and found out one of the versions had animals going into a pot, and one had a farmer who thought the animals in the mitten might be his dinner! I adapted the story so the animals would be okay in the end.
The animals—even the great big bear whose sneeze makes first-graders burst out laughing—are, of course, stand-ins for the child reader. And isn’t that what we want? We want the children to be okay.
The children in Ukraine are not, at this minute, anything like okay. This is what IBBY has to say on this subject:
Throughout history, war affects the innocent and above all the children. They have nothing to do with the impulses of national leaders. They suffer first and they suffer the longest. We know that when children are in a country at war they suffer great trauma even when they escape physical wounds. The same is true for children who suddenly lose their whole sense of safety and peace. This can be deeply traumatic. We believe that literature, particularly literature for children, has the power to change the future, to teach the next generations not to destroy but to negotiate as there is nothing more destructive than war.
IBBY International is deeply concerned about the current invasion by the Russian military into the sovereign state of Ukraine.
Here are some organizations working to help children affected by what Putin calls a “special operation” and we should rightly call a murderous invasion: Children's Emergency Relief International (CERI); Global Fund for Children; Canadian Red Cross; Canada Ukraine Foundation.
