One Button and the Sea

On the face of it, this is s simple tale of a community ripped apart by a disaster, their flight from danger and eventual homecoming. It could certainly be used this way with a younger audience as a simple way to start a conversation about why community is important. However, the themes it deals with are a lot more complex than perhaps initially thought and there is lots of rich material here for Key Stage Two children to investigate.

One-Button and his grandfather remember the story of 'the Up-rooting' together and how they all depended on one another to survive the aftermath, both physically and mentally. The text uses simple language but much is inferred, and the naive-style illustrations convey a lot of additional information about what the community does to keep themselves and others literally afloat until they can return home.

The key message that every community needs familiarity, contact and support shine through on every page. It would be too simplistic to link this book solely to the migrant crisis, although the flight from danger in small boats may well be commented on by children, but there is so much more to unpick on these pages about belonging and safety.

One Button and the Sea is a good text for the start of the new school year for an assembly or a unit of work on building a new class community.

Suggested Reading Age 7+

One-Button and the Sea is a story of refugees, uprooted from their homes and travelling across the sea to a new home. Grandpa tells One-Button the tale of how they moved to their new home, reminding him of the journey and how they returned home.

Told with few words and many pictures, the story is of a journey, sometimes frightening, but with a happy ending. The illustrations show the chaos of the uprooting and the danger of the journey before calming down at the end. All of the characters are animals and so it is one step removed from people so that very young children can more easily cope with it.

There is lots of detail in the pictures that children will enjoy; following the characters across the page and seeing what happens to them. As with most children, they like hearing stories of their own lives and what happened when they were younger.

This book will make a good starting point for discussion about moving homes and countries and it is accessible for younger children, but could be used with slightly older children as well.

Picture book / Reviewed by Jacqueline Harris, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+