Several of my friends with the start of the invasion were temporarily stopped reading the literature for adults, instead plunged into the nursery: they read not only for children, but also for themselves - to nourish the internally child, and with it - faith in the victory of good over evil, courage over the meanness, light over darkness. They intuitively sought support in the literature on which they had forces and which created a safe distance: in fairy tales, stories, science fiction, fantasy. Together with the heroes, they took tests, gained new qualities and received a fair reward. And sometimes reading became almost the only way to maintain emotional contact with children, distract from the news, reduce the feeling of loneliness.
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The return of a carefree childhood.
Three years have passed since then, much has changed, but the need for support remains constant - both in children and adults. Recently, during the Pen Ukraine initiative, I held volunteer meetings with children in the Chernihiv region and at the same time watched adults who brought the children to storitelling to me. Somewhere in the middle of the meeting, I usually ask the participants to hug themselves and whisper for themselves something good. Children immediately turn on, and adults are surprised: they say, we too? Of course, you first of all, because you are the main support for your child. I recall that one bearded dad was sitting in a colored chair-bag, hugged himself, and when I read funny stories from my book “Our Pidlizhki Cosmos”, closed his eyes and smiled blissfully. Когда дети создавали своих героев и рассказывали о них, этот папа внимательно слушал и хлопал в ладоши — он был полностью здесь и сейчас, словно нет ничего важнее, чем вернуть детям время беззаботного детства.
Book as a safe space.
My youngest son Roman loves books about Bodio. This is the popular series of the Polish author of Marta Galevskaya-Kustra, aimed at developing the speech of preschool children. We bought the first book before the invasion, when the Romachik was two years old. Due to stress from a sharp move and war, the development of his son’s speech was slowed down: in 2022, very few new words appeared in his dictionary, so we turned to a speech therapist. As it turned out, this problem among the children of the migrants is very common, and the schedules of speech therapists are surprisingly dense. Therefore, I saw: not only adults, but also children lose words from what is happening. They feel anxiety, but cannot speak her.
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Recently, his son was six, and he asked to re -read the book " This book has not corresponded to his age for a long time, but this is his safe space, returning at times before the big war, when we still lived at home. The son asked to buy other books from this series, we read them every day. Instead of the name of the main character, he asks to say “Romchik”, and instead of the sister of Cape - “Darinka”. Son loves to write-draw a continuation of your favorite books. Recently, in the evening, I spined a whole notebook with new adventures of Mercy's pigs (from the series of the author Kate Dikillo). But the other day, before going to bed, he said that he would write a new book about Bodio. “How do you call her? " “Bodio and war,” the son answered.
Hipples from imagination.
I love to listen to children and their imagination. So, when we moved, Roma said that a huge tiger lives in our new room. When the son went to the toilet, he asked to drive away the tiger from the toilet, and when in the bedroom - to remove the tiger from the chandelier. Thus, the son gave his unpleasant sensations an understandable form. Thanks to the image from his imagination, we worked out the alarm, later gave our son a sweet pillow-Tigric and now we remember all this with a smile. By the way, I decided to turn this life story into a book in order to support other children living similar feelings. “We have the time of the invisibility of the Tiger”-this is the name of my new book, just printed in Kharkov in the restored printing house “Factor-Drook”, in which Russians got into the last year.
Children's imagination gives a lot of tips. For example, Ukrainian children who went abroad, who went abroad, often created characters-trees, flowers, vegetables and mushrooms-who were afraid that they would tear them out with roots.. In children from the north of Chernihiv region, characters who are afraid of natural disasters, and especially floods, prevailed. I see for this fear of a repeated quick offensive and occupation. Children from the south of the Chernihiv region, which was not in the occupation, create very toothy characters who are ready to repulse. In every city and village in the works of children, you can trace some dominant images or ways to cope with fears. I really appreciate when the children themselves talk about their work and sometimes leave them as a keepsake. Even if we do not always understand what the children's imagination is trying to inform, the process of an attentive empathic listening itself creates scope for self -reflection of the child, for awareness: I and my inner world are important.
Literature as a medicine.
Not only preschoolers and younger students need attention to their worlds, but adolescents and youth. In March, I went to Odessa to hold meetings with future military. The first meeting was held in the library. The French journalist Natalie Nugayred with our journalist told students about our experiments for collecting evidence during wars (she is in Ichkeria, I in Ukraine), about the importance of maintaining personal diaries, which can subsequently turn into books. In the evening we heard a loud explosion - two kilometers from our hotel were killed by people from a Russian blow. The city where about a million people lived before the invasion, froze in alarm.
The next day we had a meeting in the naval lyceum. This is the very educational institution that was based in Sevastopol until 2014 and whose students sang the anthem of Ukraine when the invaders hung their flags. At the beginning of our meeting in the walls of the Lyceum, a school call sounded - just like in my childhood - and the teenagers rushed along the corridors to the steps. It turns out that this anxiety is announced here. We go down with Natalie in the bomb shelter, go along a deep narrow corridor between the same two -story beds. At the end - a small room with chairs, which the farther, the more resembles a tight glove. Among the students of the lyceum are many military children. There are children who have left the occupation. There are children who suffered losses. I talked about witnesses who became the heroes of my documentary book, which is now being prepared for printing. About their internal resistance, thanks to which these people survived in borderline circumstances. About how sometimes literature and art became for them medicine and meaning.
Together with Natalie, we encouraged teenagers to write and reflect. It was advised by books that could become bridges to their own writing path.
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We sat in a bomb shelter and talked about the future. These teenagers - guys and girls - will become military in a few years. I hope they will have time to read and write books during boring duty. Perhaps even fairy tales, questioning your military childhood.
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