2 Books Like Devotion

An emotional children’s story that reminded me of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, but in this case it a young boy is inside the fence of a refugee camp and a young girl is on the other side of the fence. His story is told in his own words, which adds to the substance of the book and its value as a statement of our time, which makes it even more poignant.

That people, including children, are still being held in these terrible situations needs to be talked about and this book is an excellent way of understanding more about the plight of so many displaced people today. I enjoyed the characters and the way that they interact with one another in such an honest and open way.

I have enjoyed Victoria’s books and was particularly interested by her stories of the Greek island of Spinalonga and its lepers’ colony. This is her story of Spinalonga written for children. Using English and Greek, Rita’s grandmother tells her about the photo that she has seen in her grandmother’s house during holiday visits to the Crete village of Plaka.

I enjoyed hearing with Rita about her mother, Maria, and the role she played in the history of Spinalonga. The story covers the shame and stigma of leprosy with compassion. I was interested to read about how a cure for leprosy and about the closure of the island. A fabulous little book and definitely worth reading to the end to find out the special significance of the painted pebble with the Greek words kathe mera tha se skefto, which mean ‘every day I will think of you’.