Here

I never pass up the opportunity to pluck a Kyo Maclear story off the shelves.  Her work is so beautiful and always has a message that is desperate to be heard.

Story Boat by Kyo Maclear and Rashin Kheiriyeh is plain and simply gorgeous.  The incredible illustrations in a striking complementary colour palette leaps off the shelves, just begging to be shared.  Using a blue and orange palette and mixed media illustrations, Rashin Kheiriyeh draws the reader into the story, giving them so much to see and so much to internalize beyond what the words are saying.  Children will clearly see this is a story about change, movement, and escape. It’s a story to help children understand what it’s like to be a refugee. When some of their classmates could be new to Canada, Story Boat is an impeccable way to help children understand what it’s like to have to move from place to place...where here is not a place but an object or a feeling until there is permanence. 

Kyo Maclear, in her gentle and kind way, has given Rashin Kheiriyeh the most incredible words to help create this lovely story.  By comparing the idea of “here” to an object, for a child experiencing displacement, here is never the same place but the objects and stories they bring on their journey will always be “here” and provide the comfort of home