Home for Grace by Kathryn White illustrated by Rachael Dean

Jess and her mum see a lady sitting outside a shop. Jess notices the lady has a sleeping bag, a cup, a glass bottle, a big spoon, a plastic picnic plate and an old cushion. She also has a ginger cat. At first Jess is too shy to talk to the lady but mum discovers her name is Grace and over time Grace shares the contents of her special tin of treasures and through these precious objects Jess and her mum learn a little of Grace's story. Grace is a refugee. She and her twin sister were very young when their mother was forced to flee. In the refugee camp the children learned how to fold paper butterflies - this is just one of the treasures. Each one is part of Grace's story - a photo of a woman and man with two children, three origami butterflies, two tiny cloth dolls, two woven bracelets, a pebble and a pouch of seeds.

The seeds made me think of Amira's Suitcase. 

In an act of kindness Jess and her mum give Grace a different sort of treasure box - with food, a hat, water, a notebook and pen. Jess makes a box for Luna the cat with cat food, a little old warm sweater, a drawing of Luna by Jess and a pom pom on a string. 

We never read about Grace's twin sister or her parents but one day Jess and her mum arrive at the shop and Grace is gone. 

"Each day on my way to school I looked for Grace and Luna. But they never came back. I made a Christmas card for Grace. I left it in the shop doorway, just in case." 

I am not going to tell you what happens next but please consider adding this story of compassion to your school library. It is a perfect book to use when you discuss the Sustainable Development goals - 1. No Poverty.

Andersen Press blurb: No one knows who Grace is. One day, she appeared in a shop doorway in a sleeping bag, with a cat called Luna, surrounded by strange things. When Jess and her mum strike up a friendship with Grace, Jess has questions: why did she leave her home? Does she have enough to eat? And what happens when the cold weather comes?

This is a thirty-two-page picture book, but the story is so powerful that I found myself sobbing by the final pages. When you share this book with a group of older students you might like to talk about the shop doorway. It is a lighting shop - is this symbolic of Grace's search for light, her need for light in her life, her need to find a new home in this new land moving from darkness into light? It is the parts of this story that are left unsaid that make this such a powerful reading experience. 

Kathyrn White’s compassionate characters highlight the issues around refugees arriving in new lands, and how difficult it is to build a new life. The mother and daughter’s generous gestures toward Grace show how wonderful friendships are made in the most complex and harrowing of circumstances.

Love Reading 4Kids have a useful list of books about refugees and the issues around homelessness. You can see other books by UK author Kathryn White here. 

Companion books:

I saw Pete and Pete saw me

Crumbs

The Old Man