The Endless Sea by Chi Thai illustrated by Linh Dao

"The war was over, but life wasn't easier. Everyone was hungry. Everyone was afraid. My family were punished for being on the losing side of the war - our relatives went missing. Every day felt like it could be our last."

Now we move onto the people smugglers. The family sell all their precious things and pay a man who pays a man who speaks to another man and then finally it is time to leave - at night, in secret. After days of travel they reach a boat but it is old, wooden and extremely overloaded. The food runs out. The water runs out. It begins to rain and the boat begins to sink. 

"As the water inched higher and higher, I imagined sinking with the boat and disappearing into the sea. It would be as if we were never here, or never existed."

A ship comes to their rescue but in a heart-wrenching moment the crew hesitate to rescue the refugees. And this is only the beginning of their journey to a new city, a refugee camp, a long plane flight and finally a bust to their new home. 

In the background notes you will read how the experiences explained in this picture book actually happened to Chi Thai. You should also linger over the cover and end papers. This is an important and poignant picture book with a heartfelt personal story that should be added to your school library collection.

A poignant reflection on one refugee’s experience. Kirkus

The specific context is helpful, but even without, it’s an affecting story, a reminder that the refugee experience is unfortunately common enough to be believable even without all the details. The narrator’s voice is clipped but sympathetic, as she conveys the sequence of her journey with a matter-of-fact approach that still leaves room for emotion. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

This moving, visually compelling story about one refugee family’s experiences is a powerful testament to fostering compassion and understanding. Horn Book

Chi Thai is a British Vietnamese independent filmmaker. She is a BIFA nominated producer and a Screen International Star of Tomorrow. She directed and produced the short film adaptation of award-winning Walker title The Promise by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin. The Endless Sea is her debut picture book.

Linh Dao is an award-winning illustrator and animator. Having been born in Vietnam she is now based in in Brno, Czech Republic.

I have begun collecting picture books that explore the refugee experience in preparation for an IBBY Australia talk later this year. Our Australian Standing orders have a selection of International titles and that is where I first saw a reference to this book. Then I was visiting Gleebooks and able to read The Endless Sea for myself - realising it was a perfect picture book to add to my collection. I am not a fan of endorsements but there are two very powerful ones on the back cover of this book:

• "These are the stories we must tell on behalf of those who can't." Shaun Tan
• "What a powerful book!" Michael Rosen

Companion books:

Out

Then and Now

Grandma's Treasured Shoes

Wishes

Escape

The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

Exploits on the high seas and complex characters combine in a tale full of both excitement and heart. An engrossing adventure with the feeling of a whole world to be explored. Kirkus Star Review

Sai (full name Sodsai Arawan) is a girl living in a highly stratified society. She is on the bottom rung. Her father is a petty criminal and they live in squalid conditions. Sai, though, has worked hard and found herself a good job with the esteemed map maker. She has managed to find some clothes suitable for an apprentice and each day she travels into the city to work with Paiyoon. She has a firm goal to better herself and to do this she needs the all important status symbol of a lineal or chain. The more of these a citizen displays the higher their social standing. Sai is twelve. Lineals are given to children when they turn thirteen. They show your heritage.

The Kingdom of Mangkon is huge but the Queen wants more. She sets a challenge to the navy to sail to all corners of the globe to claim new lands in her name. 

Of course, these ships will need a map maker and Paiyoon is famous, but he is old now and unwell and his hands keep shaking. He does secure a place on a ship, but he will need Sai to travel with him to assist with the map making. Sai is very skilled with copying documents and maps. She is thrilled she can go on the voyage. Partly because this is a way to get away from her father and partly because there is a reward at the end of the voyage, and this will mean she can obtain a lineal and a better future.

On board the ship there is the crew of course, and one of them is very suspicious of Sai, but there is also the Captain who is the Queen's great niece, Mr Lark a naturalist, Dr Pinching the ship surgeon, Miss Rian Prasomsap - a former soldier, and Bo a stowaway with an interesting back story. The real dilemma for you as a reader comes when you try to work out who to trust. I was suspicious but also very wrong with my predictions. 

The voyage is long and filled with danger but the really interesting part of this book comes when we discover why the Queen wants to know about these distant lands and what she might do there. She has already almost destroyed some of the places they visit on the voyage and that is why I have added the label colonization to this post. 

"I had expected Falhin to be a green vibrant place like Pitaya Island but it couldn't have been more different. From what I could see, Fahlin was made of mud. The streets near the habour were slick and greasy, and the water was stained brown." Keep reading pages 180-181 to hear what Paiyoon thinks about the Queen and her desire to claim new territory.

Horn Book expand this idea: Class structure, imperial greed, and environmental ravages underpin the narrative arc of this fantastical adventure story, resonating with our own contemporary issues. At the same time, Soontornvat’s Thai-inspired culture and geography provide a vivid backdrop. With emphasis on an intricate plot and quick, accessible prose, Soontornvat provides plenty of excitement while bringing questions of expansionism and de-colonization to young readers.

Publisher blurb: As assistant to Mangkon’s most celebrated mapmaker, twelve-year-old Sai plays the part of a well-bred young lady with a glittering future. In reality, her father is a conman—and in a kingdom where the status of one’s ancestors dictates their social position, the truth could ruin her. Sai seizes the chance to join an expedition to chart the southern seas, but she isn’t the only one aboard with secrets. When Sai learns that the ship might be heading for the fabled Sunderlands—a land of dragons, dangers, and riches beyond imagining—she must weigh the cost of her dreams. Vivid, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, this tale of identity and integrity is as beautiful and intricate as the maps of old.

Watch the trailer from Candlewick. 

Reading it, it doesn’t feel like any other book out there. It grips you from the first page. You believe in these characters, in their wants and dreams and fears. You never doubt for a second their motivations, even when they surprise you with their choices. This may even be the kind of book that kids that usually eschew fantasy would actually like quite a lot. Though fantastical elements exist, there’s a strange reality to them. Consider this the kind of book that kids and their adult gatekeepers will love equally. In other words? Rare rare treasure. Betsy Bird SLJ

I have had this book on my list for a while. It was published in 2023. I saw the hardcover on sale in a bookstore but hesitated to buy it which was silly but anyway I now own the paperback.

Awards for The Last Mapmaker:

• 2023 Newbery Honor Book
• New York Times Best Children’s Book of the Year 
• New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
• Kirkus Best Book of the Year
• Walter Dean Myers Honor Book for Young Readers
• Texas Bluebonnet Master List Selection 
• A Junior Library Guild Selection 
• A Common Sense Media Selection 
• Audiofile Best Audiobook of the Year
• Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
• YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
• ALSC Notable Children’s Book 2023

I previously talked about this book (five stars) by Christina Soontornvat.

A Wish in the Dark

Companion books:

Bartlett and the Ice Voyage

The Girl, the Cat and the Navigator

The Pearl in the Ice

Race to the end of the world

The Mapmakers' Race

Baby on Board by Allan Ahlberg illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark

 

All of the children head to the beach with the baby in a pram and sandwiches, lemonade, a kite, friends and a dog or two. It is a joyous sunny day. The children play with each other and with the baby and everyone enjoys their lunch but when the kite string breaks, all of the children run to catch it, and the baby is left behind in his pram with only his toys for company. The pram has been left close to the shore. The tide rolls in. 

" ... then quite soon, the waves and wind got larger and louder and turned into a storm. The baby frowned and clutched his special bit of flannel and sucked his thumb."

The pram is swept out to sea but luckily his toy friends are there to help with a banana, some juice in his special cup and a game of peepo! Then a puffin spots the pram and this delights the baby but panda is swept overboard all the toys have to perform an heroic rescue. The drama continues when a huge fish grabs hold of a rope tied to the pram but fortunately the rope breaks. Meanwhile I kept wondering about the children and parents back at home who surely are searching frantically for their lost brother.

With all the toys back on the pram, and danger a thing of the past, the pram drifts on.

"Night, and a scatter of silver stars and a sliver of moon and a dazzling, swinging beam of light from the lighthouse. Up onto the silent beach came the pram. Only then half out of the water it ground to a halt and would not budge."

Now the toys spring into action rushing home to gather all their toy friends to help pull the pram to safety on the beach and eventually all the humans arrive to claim their son and brother.

I love the final scene in this book (a little like something out of the Toy Story movie) where you can see panda, rabbit and doll sharing the story of their ocean adventure with all the other toys in the playroom.

Stunning artwork by Emma Chichester Clark – love the 1930s pram and children’s attire –  transforms Allan Ahlberg’s super story into a super, super story. It’s perfect as a bedtime book, or equally as a shared read at any time of the day. Red Reading Hub

I talked about Allan Ahlberg yesterday because he has just had a birthday. I love the way so many of his books are illustrated by famous people such as this one by Emma Chichester Clark.  I am a huge fan of her work especially the Blue Kangaroo series and The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup. Baby on Board is a newish book published in 2019 and it is a gem.

It would be fun to read this alongside a much older book by Allan Ahlberg illustrated by his late wife Janet - Bye Bye baby.

You will also want to pick up the famous book by Allan Ahlberg - Peepo.

This book also reminded me of these:

Ruby and Little Joe

Haywire by Claire Saxby

"You think I want to be here? You think I had any choice? ... They just rounded us up like so many cows. Did they ever ask why we were in England? Why we'd left Germany? Did they ask what we thought about Hitler and his madmen. No. They just stuck us in a prison like we were criminals, then bought us halfway round the world and dumped us in the middle of a desert."

It is October 1939. Two boys live on different sides of the world. 

Tom Hallon, aged 14, lives in Hay, NSW Australia. Tom has two older brothers who have just signed up, an older sister on the cusp of falling in love with a young soldier, a baby sister, and his mum and dad. Tom has ambition - he hopes to win a scholarship and go to university in Sydney but with his brothers now gone Tom must leave school and help his father in the family bakery. 

Max Gruber, aged 14, lives in Bockhurst, Germany. He is an only child. Hitler has just invaded Poland and so his mother takes him from school and sends him off on his own to the safety of London where his Uncle Ferdy now lives. But London is not safe. Uncle Ferdy and Max are first sent to Huyton internment camp then they are put onto a ship which is supposed to take them to Canada - the Arandora Star - but the ship is bombed. It sinks. Max and his Uncle survive but his Uncle is badly hurt in body and mind. Once more they find themselves in a UK internment camp but the government don't want them and so they are ordered onto another ship - the Dunera. This ship is travelling to Australia and once again Max is placed in an internment camp - this time in Hay, NSW and this time he is alone.

This book is on CBCA 2021 Notable list for Younger Readers which is how I discovered it. Haywire is also on the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge in the 7-9 category. I think this book will be enjoyed by mature readers aged 11+. The story is told through alternating voices. Claire Saxby gives each boy a unique and authentic voice. Haywire is the perfect title - something to discuss with a class. I also need to mention the two bullies who regularly attack Max. They are so horrible. I was desperate for Max to find peace and for these two older boys to be caught and punished.

Here are some text quotes to give you a flavour of the writing:

Max

"Papa and I will come soon.' She nods firmly. 'But now you must go now.' Her shoulders are tight and her brow furrows ... One side of her mouth lifts a little, but only for a second, and the smile does not fit with her worried eyes."

"Jump!' a sailor tells me. 'Then swim to the life raft. Understand?' ... The tilting ship gives a whale-size burp and makes the decision for me. I tumble over the railing into the water. I sink, then pop back to the surface, the life jacket around my ears. The icy water quickly finds the last warm parts of me, soaking through everything."

"I trip into something soft and squelchy. It's hard to tell, but I think it's a dead lamb. I feel bones inside the softness and deadness fills my nostrils. Even in this light though, I see maggots twist and squirm. I retch ... "

Tom

"I knew that working in our bakery wasn't just jam and cream, but I didn't realise just how hard the work is. Or how much carrying and cleaning there is. My arms ache, my back aches, my everything aches. ... Each morning as a crawl out of bed, I curse every German who ever lived. They started the war, they took my brothers away."

There are two scenes in this book that linger with me.  One comes after Max escapes. Tom tracks him down but the situation is very dangerous. A loner, a man damaged in the Great War, is holding Max captive. Tom knows he cannot fight this angry man so instead he reaches out to shake his hand. This diffuses the situation in such a perfect way.

The second scene is near the end of the story. Mrs Brandon visits Max in hospital. While Max was on the run he took food from their house. Mrs Brandon brings Max clothes and food. She hopes her son, who is away fighting in the war, might receive the same kindness from another mother far away.

 This story has an authentic Australia feel with expressions such as: don't get ya knickers in a knot; back-of-bloody-beyond; strewth; poor buggers; and stone the flammin' crows.

Publisher blurb: In 1939, 14-year-old Tom lives in Hay where his family runs the local bakery. Max Gruber is nearly 13. He is sent to his Uncle Ferdy in London, but is then interred and shipped to Australia aboard the Dunera. He arrives in Hay and meets Tom. The two boys become friends and find their lives and their friendship influenced by a far-away conflict in Europe.  Shortlisted, 2020 NSW Premier's History Awards.

Superbly written and presented, Haywire is a powerful read. It focuses historically, on the prelude to WW2 and the crumbling of people’s lives. Reading Time

This is a novel that deserves a wide readership among young readers with an appetite for learning something about our history while being taken on an adventure.  Claire Saxby’s prose is crisp. Short and sharp sentences provide bold, vivid images that carry urgency and tension equal to the characters’ actions and emotions. Kids' Book Review

Background reading:

BBC News  The Dunera Boys - 70 years on after notorious voyage

National Museums Liverpool Maritime tales - tragedy of the Arandora Star

BBC Liverpool  Wartime camps in Huyton

Take a look here to see other books by Claire Saxby.

Haywire is the second book in this series entitled Australia's Second World War.  Here is the first book by Sophie Masson:

There are other books for Middle Grade readers which explore the conditions in internment camps during World War II. This is a list of books set in camps for Japanese Americans. Here are four books I suggest as companion reads after Haywire: