By Wendy Meddour
A small girl in a refugee camp makes a best friend of a pebble, then gives it away to a lonelier child.
Lubna arrives at night, cold and wet, off a crowded boat and into a place she calls the World of Tents. There are no toys and almost nothing to hold, so she picks up a pebble from the beach and it becomes her best friend. She draws a face on it, tells it about home, and her father helps her tuck it into a little shoebox bed for the winter. Then a smaller child named Amir turns up at the camp, all alone and frightened. When Lubna's family is finally moved on to a new home, she gives Pebble to Amir so he won't be by himself.
If your child is meeting the idea of refugees for the first time, this is the one I'd hand them first. Meddour keeps everything small and close: one girl, one stone, a father who stays gentle, one new friend. The war Lubna fled is never shown or explained, so a young child meets a refugee camp through something they already understand, which is loving a small thing and not wanting to be alone. The ending gives them a real feeling to hold onto too: Lubna gives up her one comfort so a lonelier child won't be without one. It costs her something, and a child feels that, without ever being frightened.