Refugees by Brian Bilston illustrated by José Sanabria

Before you share this book with a group of students (I suggest age 10+) you should plan to read this book very carefully yourself first. The words of the first half of this book are harsh and confronting. You will need to prepare your students - I would explain that some words may shock or surprise them but it is essential to listen to the whole book before continuing any discussion.

You may already know I adore end papers especially ones that are different front and back and then there are the very best end papers that add to your enjoyment or interpretation of the story.  The end papers in Refugees by Brian Bilston are the very best.

Front end paper

Think about all of the symbolism in this fabric. It is stained, it has raw edges, and it is very roughly sewn together.

Back end paper

At the end of the book the fabric is rich, textured, neatly stitched and reflective of many diverse cultures. 

Here is the text for this book - you need to read it top to bottom and bottom to top.

They have no need of our help

So do not tell me

These haggard faces could belong to you or me

Should life have dealt a different hand

We need to see them for who they really are

Chancers and scroungers

Layabouts and loungers

With bombs up their sleeves

Cut-throats and thieves

They are not

Welcome here

We should make them

Go back to where they came from

They cannot

Share our food

Share our homes

Share our countries

Instead let us

Build a wall to keep them out

It is not okay to say

These are people just like us

A place should only belong to those who are born there

Do not be so stupid to think that

The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

Brian Bilston is a poet who first became known posting his poems on twitter. His first book of poetry, You Took the Last Bus Home was published in 2017 and this year, Bilston published Diary of a Somebody, a book which mixes poetry with prose. Fans of Bilston’s work will know that he never shies away from controversial topics including poems about American gun crime, Brexit and the refugee crisis. Particularly memorable for many readers is his poem, Refugees, which can be read forwards and backwards with very different meaning, a poem style that Bilston himself calls “forwardsy-backwardsy poems.” Adding “but there may be a better word than that.”  Read in one direction, the poem Refugees reflects the hatred refugees often suffer when they flee to safer shores only to be told to ‘go home’. However, read the other way, the poem is heart-warming, welcoming and inviting to refugees in need of asylum. For Reading Addicts UK

You can see many pages from this book here. 

Here’s a book to make you think hard no matter what your feelings on the topic. ... No matter what, the book ought to be shared, discussed and pondered upon by all.   Red Reading Hub

Here is a video of this poem which could be used with High School students. In the book the two parts of the poem are shown when the text moves from the left side to the right. 

We have another book here in Australia which uses this idea of reading text in both directions - Room on our Rock (winner of the Charlotte Huck Award 2020) by Kate and Jol Temple written on a similar topic for a much younger audience. This pair have a new title Move that Mountain which uses the same format. 

I have already swooned over another picture book illustrated by Colombian illustrator José Sanabria - As time went by.