The Day War Came by Nicola Davies

By Nicola Davies (author) , Rebecca Cobb (illustrator)

"An important and beautiful book that perfectly encapsulates for other children the trauma of war and what it is like to be a refugee. Invaluable"

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Shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2019 | A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month June 2018

Award-wining Nicola Davies has created a beautiful story which makes its powerful point brilliantly by focusing on the plight of a single child refugee. A little girl’s way of life - one that will be familiar to children around the world - is totally destroyed when the war comes. Having lost everything, alone and facing terrible danger, she travels across the world in search of a new home.

But who will help her to find one? Nicola Davies never preaches, instead she allows her story and Rebecca Cobb’s equally sensitive and warm-hearted illustrations to carry the message with their own integrity and eloquence. The book is endorsed by Amnesty International.

Imagine if, on an ordinary day, war came. Imagine it turned your town to rubble. Imagine going on a long and difficult journey - all alone. Imagine finding no welcome at the end of it. Then imagine a child who gives you something small but very, very precious...

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When the government refused to allow 3000 child refugees to enter this country in 2016, Nicola Davies was so angry she wrote a poem. It started a campaign for which artists contributed drawings of chairs, symbolising a seat in a classroom, education, kindness, the hope of a future.

The poem has become this book, movingly illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, which should prove a powerful aid for explaining the ongoing refugee crisis to younger readers. £1 from every copy sold goes to the charity Help Refugees - find out more about their wonderful work at their website, helprefugees.org .

an incredibly powerful picture book [...]. Cobb's illustrations are both beautiful and devastating. Bookseller

Nicola Davies is an award-winning author, whose many books for children include The Promise, Tiny, A First Book of Nature and King of the Sky. She has been writing for children for more than 20 years. Underlying all Nicola's writing is the belief that a relationship with nature is essential to every human being, and that now, more than ever, we need to renew that relationship. Her work has been published in more than 10 different languages and has won major awards in the UK, US, France, Italy and Germany. Nicola is the Children’s Laureate Wales 2025-2027.

She is a Zoology graduate, an expert in whales and bats, and has worked for the BBC Natural History Unit. She lives in Powys