This heart wrenching picture book about refugees follows the perseverance of a mother and daughter trying to find a safe place to sleep in a dark and gray, war-ravaged city. As they try to comfort each other, the mother tells her daughter the tale of a large protective bird that will spread its wings and keep them from harm as they rest. Heavy, ominous pictures reflect the displacement and destroyed surroundings of homes with no doors, walls or roofs. The enormous bird reminds the frightened girl of wonderful sights from her past. Slowly her colorful memories come back to her and are brought to life giving her hope. The morning finds a rainbow in the sky and the girl and her mother are on the move to somewhere, anywhere, determined to stay together.

Author lives in Norway.

Norwegian. Originally published in Norway as Fargene som forsvant by Vigmostad & Bjorke in 2017. English translation by Kari Dickson published in the United States by Eerdmans Books in 2019.

A haunting, poignant story about refugees

As a young girl and her mother take shelter for the night in their war-torn city, the whole world appears muted and dark. When the girl wakes in the middle of the night to find a bird watching her, she knows it’s the one from her mother’s stories, who flies down from the mountains to protect people from harm. She tells the bird what her life used to be like, before the war and destruction—she describes her favorite dress, the open market stalls, her dad playing music on the roof. As she continues to remember, colors slowly seep back into her life, and with them comes the courage to hope for a new beginning.

This evocative story is a wonderful conversation starter about an important and timely topic.