Using literature to help children cope with war and trauma
Since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian writers have filled the shelves of local bookstores with stories to help young kids understand and process the war around them.
At a children’s library, a rapt audience gathered on a rainy October day in Lviv, a picturesque city in western Ukraine, to hear two co-authors speak about their fantasy novel.
The young adult book, “Children of a Fiery Time,” is set during the harrowing first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It tells the story of 13-year-old Katya, who is in the middle of evacuating when she is pulled through the wall of the train station in Kyiv. She finds herself in an underworld below the capital city, where her adventure begins.
The ongoing war in Ukraine has raised heavy topics for children and teenagers: death, PTSD and parents who are away from home fighting. Since the full-scale invasion, the shelves of local bookstores have begun to overflow with books by Ukrainian authors. Many are aimed at helping kids — and the adults who read with them — to process their extraordinary circumstances.
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