January 2023 Book of the Month | Shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023
With a foreword by Michael Morpurgo, Yeva Skalietska’s You Don’t Know What War Is shares a stirring, child-centred story about the war in Ukraine that the world needs to hear, and everyone should read.
“Until you’ve been there, you don’t know what war is.” 12-year-old Yeva’s words strike bone-deep from the opening of her extraordinary diary. It begins on 14th February 2022 when she’s happily celebrating her birthday in her Kharkiv home. A mere ten days later, Yeva’s world shatters when she’s “woken suddenly by a loud metallic sound that echoed through the streets”, and sees Granny “standing by the window, looking towards the Russian border. She was watching missiles flying over the fields.”
Yeva evokes the immediate aftermath of worrying about friends, finding shelter, and seeing snipers on the streets with chilling clarity. Her voice rings with remarkable honesty — “My heart is full of fear. What will happen next is anyone’s guess …”
Then, while sheltering in a basement, Yeva began write this document of her experiences, from dealing with escalating day-to-day dangers, to the journey she and Granny take to Dublin, and beyond as Yeva starts school, makes new friends, while desperately missing loved ones back home.
As Michael Morpurgo writes in his introduction, “Once read, we will have lived it with Yeva, through her words. Once read, we don’t forget. Yeva’s utterly compelling story stays with us.” I’ll leave the last wise, soul-stirring words to Yeva, though: “I want to finish by saying this: we are only children, and we deserve to live a life of peace and happiness!”
Everyone knows the word 'war'. But very few understand what it truly means. When you find you have to face it, you feel totally lost, walled in by fright and despair. Until you've been there, you don't know what war is.
This is the gripping and moving diary of young Ukrainian refugee Yeva Skalietska. It follows twelve days in Ukraine that changed 12-year-old Yeva's life forever. She was woken in the early hours to the terrifying sounds of shelling.
Russia had invaded Ukraine, and her beloved Kharkiv home was no longer the safe haven it should have been. It was while she was forced to seek shelter in a damp, cramped basement that Yeva decided to write down her story.
And it is a story the world needs to hear. Yeva captured the nation's heart when she was featured on Channel 4 News with her granny as they fled Ukraine for Dublin.
In You Don't Know What War Is, Yeva records what is happening hour-by-hour as she seeks safety and travels from Kharkiv to Dublin. Each eye-opening diary entry is supplemented by personal photographs, excerpts of messages between Yeva and her friends and daily headlines from around the world, while three beautifully detailed maps (by Kharkiv-native Olga Shtonda) help the reader track Yeva and her granny's journey.
You Don't Know What War Is is a powerful insight into what conflict is like through the eyes of a child and an essential read for adults and older children alike.
Published in association with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with a foreword by Michael Morpurgo.
Yeva speaks a truth that all of us, young and old, must listen to. -- Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse
The most important story of our times told from the inside by the best narrator: a wise twelve-year-old girl. -- Viv Groskop, comedian, writer and podcaster
This book has touched my heart in a way that I am finding hard to put into words. Everyone, absolutely everyone, should read it. You will love Yeva. -- Christy Lefteri, No.1 international bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo
I wish Yeva Skalietska hadn't felt the need to write this book but I'm glad that she did write it - because it is exhilarating, shattering, heartbreaking, brilliant. It's an extraordinary book. -- Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize-winning author
Yeva's diary allows the reader to experience war through the eyes of a child and her story will endure long after this terrible war ends. - Lord Alf Dubs, refugee rights campaigner
I'll never forget the first time Yeva read extracts from her diary to me in a refugee shelter at the start of the full-scale war. With this book, we all get that privilege. -- Paraic O'Brien, Channel 4 News reporter
Powerful and poetic, this beautiful book shows the very worst and the very best of humanity. Essential reading. -- Katya Balen, Carnegie Medal-winning author
This is one of those extraordinary books that will haunt readers for a very long time. - Irish Times
[A] heartbreaking revelation of war through a child's eyes. - Telegraph
It resonates beyond the particular to convey what it means to lose everything suddenly, the horror of bombardment and the need to make those who run from danger safe. - The Sunday Times
This is an important book - a recording of history written by Yeva, a young person, whose words and feelings reflect so many who rarely get an opportunity to be heard. A herstory of Ukraine for posterity. -- Olia Hercules, Ukrainian chef and food writer
Author
About Yeva Skalietska
Yeva is a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl who grew up living with her granny in Kharkiv, near the Russian border. She loves learning languages, bowling, playing the piano and painting. Yeva wrote a diary of her experiences of fleeing war in Ukraine. She now lives in Dublin, Ireland where she has made new friends and had a go at Irish dancing, but is always missing home.
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