Choose Love by Nicola Davies

By Nicola Davies (author) , Petr Horacek (illustrator)

Hardback In Stock £16.99 £15.29

View All Editions (1)

Highly Recommended, CLiPPA 2023

Choose Love is a cycle of poems that highlights the experience of those forced to become refugees. The core of the collection was written in 2018 as part of a project with the charity Refugee Trauma Initiative. With the permission of both individual refugees and aid workers, RTI shared with Nicola a number of true and poignant stories which were then used as the basis for short-form poems.

Over the following years Nicola added to this core of poems to create a coherent collection on the theme of forced migration, its wider causes and consequences.

Read the full description

Suffused with compassion and understanding, the work invites you to share in these stories in the hope of building greater awareness and empathy for the struggles faced by so many, and to choose love as our response.

‘ Choose Love is a collection of poetry which admirably raises empathy and understanding around refugees. Every word is carefully chosen and expertly crafted into the most humane and heartfelt poetry, enriched and enhanced by abstract illustrations which show how art, in its widest sense, can affect positive change, building bridges and bonds between each of us.’ - Jake Hope, Chair of Youth Libraries Group, Books for Keeps

'I don’t know when a book last caused so much emotion or made me want to act so desperately to help. This is beautiful, compassionate, I want everyone to see it.' - Maggie Still, Scottish BookTrust

‘There is heartbreak in the refugee plight and the utter cruelty of borders and uncaring governments in this devastating entwining of words and pictures. BUT there is also deep HOPE in confronting what it is all too easy to shy away from. Important, sensitive and brave.’ - Kate Shooter, Artist

‘It is too easy for the individual stories and impacts to be lost behind the sweeping phrases of ‘refugee crisis’ ’small boat people’ etc. This helps to bring us back to the person, the faces and family, the individuals who are part of the bigger picture.’ -Andy Fryers, Hay Festival Sustainability Director

‘Just beautiful. Vital and heart-breaking. I can’t help but get teary reading it.’ - Chi Thai, Film Director

‘Never has it been more important to Choose Love , this beautifully crafted book comes out just when we need it most.’ - Aine Venables, Hay Festival Education Manager

'Unflinching, moving and thought-provoking, this collection provides insight that new reports can't hope to achieve.' - Helen Thompson, The School Librarian

'Challenging, dynamic, important and really rather brilliant.’ -Simon Fisher, Family Bookworms

'This is a book to put before teens and young adults for a personal response, maybe a discussion that might even lead to the creation of more poems. more artwork.' Books for Keeps

'A lovely, heartfelt book that would make a gorgeous gift, and is aligned to the Choose Hope charity which holds a focus on humanitarian aid. Excellent stuff all round.' - Buzz Magazine

'The most incredible, thought provoking, at times gut wrenchingly, harrowing poems that reach deep into your soul and change your view of the world. There's glimpses of hope splintered throughout, hope when you choose love.' - Busy Busy Learning

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