The
recent hurricane in Texas and the floods in the Indian subcontinent, has made
me thinking about how we talk about natural disasters to children.
My
own picture book Pattan’s Pumpkin is a flood story too – and it talks about how
Pattan had to make a boat from a giant pumpkin to escape the floods in the
valley in they lived.
So
I went to look about other picture books handle the traumatic concepts of floods and its effects for children.
Here
are the ones I found – perhaps of use to you in your classrooms to discuss the
topic that must be on children’s minds.
This
is a wordless picture book – it shows the preparation of a family of an
impending storm and how they evacuate and their house gets flooded. It also
shows how the family pull together on their return to restore their house to
order and life resumes. It is a wonderful way to bring out conversations in
classrooms – be it in younger ages or older.
Flood
by Gillian McClure
In
this book the victims are three friend – an ox, a fox and a hen. They are
caught up in a flood and they need to work together to reach land.
In
contrast, The
Bobbling and the Flood is a comic take on what do with a flood. Bobbling
Poodle Doodle wants to clear the flood by finding the plughole. The result is
hilarious though.
Frog
is a Hero is a digital edition from Andersen in which we find out about how
Frog saves his friends when the river bursts its banks.
And finally one of my favourites – Elmer
and the Flood in which Elma has to rescue a young stranded elephant when
the forest is flooded due to heavy rains.
These five titles will trigger conversations about
what happens during a flood, how do we prepare for them and how to deal with the
aftermaths. Children will be able to relate to, empathise and talk about
families across the world caught up in such disasters.
Do you know of other books you can recommend?
Find out more about Chitra Soundar at www.chitrasoundar.com or Follow her on Twitter @csoundar
1 comment:
Very interesting, Chitra. I have been working on a flood story since Taiphoon Haiyan struck the Philippines and it kind of fell by the wayside. But now you've reminded me and I will return to it!
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