SuitabookThe Journey
Francesca Sanna
- Reading
- Read it together when there is time to pause. Name difficult feelings without demanding personal comparisons, and let the child focus on images, ask questions or stop before discussing why people may have to leave home.
- Themes
- Seeking safety: A family leaves a war-torn homeland, crosses borders and travels towards a safer place. The story presents displacement through the family’s personal journey, making fear and hope central to the experience.
- Protection and hidden emotion: The mother reassures the children while the pictures show that she is frightened and crying. Care is shown as continuing despite fear; courage appears as protection and persistence rather than absence of distress.
- Borders and belonging: Guards block the family, and they continue through unfamiliar countries and towards a place with different ways of doing things. The journey raises questions about who is allowed to cross and how a new place may be experienced, but the evaluative message is not fully established.
- Worth knowing
- Expect frightening travel, hiding, angry or threatening border guards, a dangerous sea crossing, bereavement and an uncertain destination. The family’s safety is not settled in a conventional happy ending.