By Eduard Altarriba
Button Books ISBN: 9781787081291 rrp: £9.99
A hot topic at the moment and this is a good subject to introduce to the 8+ age group. Migrants is a book designed to provide an easy-to-understand explanation for all the doubts kids might have when they hear about the ‘migrant crisis’ on the news.
With just over 40 pages all illustrated and a glossary so you can understand Annex, NGO’s, Hispanic etc) this tells us the history of movement from paleolithic times until the establishment of farming and then cities and how these are easily disrupted through warfare, disease, famine etc.
Humanity was nomadic for 99% of its existence. Sedentary life, national borders and the creation of identity documents for increasingly stricter population control are comparatively recent phenomena, and paradoxical given that the world is becoming ever more globalized. The recent emergence of populist movements in the West that are focused on closing borders and rejecting others raises serious questions about our sense of fraternity, especially when we could be facing ever larger migration movements due to the climate crisis.
This book concisely explains what migration is, its causes and consequences, and the humanistic and legal aspects regarding it in the simplest, most objective ways possible, so that children have all the information they need to understand the world around them.
The concept of borders is introduced and how they affect our daily life. imagine a world before passports!
Naturally colonisation is covered and it takes us up to date with nightime boat crossings and the EU deporting people to Turkey. The United States also has its own section as it was initially developed on migration and how the notion of nationhood as changed american attitudes.
This tries to be neutral but does gloss over countries allowing migrants to pass through swiftly so they become an issue on the next country that they enter.
Eduard Altarriba
Eduard Altarriba is a graphic designer and illustrator. He runs Alababalà, a studio producing games, exhibitions, animation, apps and practical and fun workbooks for children. He has illustrated several books published by Button Books including the award-winning and bestselling STEM series My First Book of Science.