The Day War Came marks the moment when everything changed for the little girl in this story. The simple, spare language of a child reveals the harsh, indiscriminate brutality of war. It begins as a normal day – sharing breakfast around the kitchen table with her family, attending school and learning lessons with school friends. Then life is irreparably changed with the sudden and unexpected onset of war.

Buildings and houses are turned to rubble and ruin amid cacophonous destruction and angry clouds of smoke. The story of loss, displacement, and asylum that follows is as harrowing as the loss of childhood innocence for a girl who finds herself alone and unprotected in a world ripped asunder. This is a remarkable work that shows rather than tells the refugee experience. It is heartbreaking, yet it is also hopeful about the resilience of children.

Natalie Platten is the assistant manager and children’s book buyer at Readings Doncaster.