Using literature to help children cope with war and trauma

At a children’s library, a rapt audience gathered on a rainy October day in Lviv, a picturesque city in western Ukraine, to hear two co-authors speak about their fantasy novel.

The young adult book, “Children of a Fiery Time,” is set during the harrowing first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It tells the story of 13-year-old Katya, who is in the middle of evacuating when she is pulled through the wall of the train station in Kyiv. She finds herself in an underworld below the capital city, where her adventure begins.

The ongoing war in Ukraine has raised heavy topics for children and teenagers: death, PTSD and parents who are away from home fighting. Since the full-scale invasion, the shelves of local bookstores have begun to overflow with books by Ukrainian authors. Many are aimed at helping kids — and the adults who read with them — to process their extraordinary circumstances.

“It’s not so much a book about the war,” said the story’s co-author Mia Marchenko. “It’s a book about the little victories that were made every day and about regaining control of your life.”

For her and fellow co-author Kateryna Pekur, one of those little victories was writing a book under impossible circumstances. During that frightening time in 2022, they would meet at a cafe in that very train station to write even as rockets were flying overhead. Their tale includes these very real events. Marchenko said they worried these topics might be too raw, but readers have told them the novel has been healing.

As the authors wrapped up their talk, audience members gathered around to have their copies signed. Among them was Svitlana Yurhel, who had traveled almost 600 miles from the eastern city of Dnipro with her 8-year-old son to attend this and other events offered as part of this year’s Lviv Book Forum.

Growing up, Yurhel recalled having only one book in the Ukrainian language, a book of fairy tales from her grandmother.

“I want my son to have Ukrainian stories and to read Ukrainian books,” she said. “Because, you know, after the Soviet Union, all the books I have personally in my library from my childhood and from my parents were only Russian.”

There is a long history of Russian-language books dominating the Ukrainian market. But a new law requiring foreign-language books to be translated into Ukrainian and a ban on imports of Russian-language books have created shelf space for homegrown authors.

Still, Ukraine’s publishers have been operating under difficult circumstances. In May, Russia bombed the Faktor Druk printing house in Kharkiv. The attack killed seven employees and destroyed printing equipment, as well as more than 50,000 books, including those from the publisher Vivat. 

At a Vivat bookstore in the riverside Podil neighborhood of Kyiv, customers browsed the children and young adult sections.Kateryna Ilchuk, Vivat’s communications director, pulled out several books.

“This book is very popular because parents don’t always know how to find a common language and tell their children about the war,” she said. “When it’s in the format of a fairy tale about some brave and strong people, it seems to be more optimistic and hopeful. You can explain in simple words what is really happening.”

The book, “Heroic Tales” by Iryna Matsko, features stories of real Ukrainians, including some who have died in the war. It’s now in its second printing. 

Mariana Savka, the founder, co-owner and editor-in-chief of the Old Lion Publishing House, wrote one of the earliest books dealing with war themes in 2022.“By Train Home” draws inspiration from real-life events as people fled Ukraine at the start of the full-scale war. 

“In this cruel time, it is extraordinarily important to help [children] to feel safer and to feel they have a future,” she said. 

Alina Otzemko used her own experiences and training as a psychologist to pen her first book.

“You need to talk about the war in an age-appropriate way, but as truthfully as possible, so that children understand what is happening,” she said.

Otzemko’s husband, Vasyl, a history teacher who went by the military call-sign Teacher, served on the frontlines. When he came home after months away, their then two-and-a-half-year-old son Yuri didn’t recognize his father. So, Otzemko decided to take her son to visit his father while he was serving and realized she had a unique perspective. The book that resulted, “Why Is Dad Not Home?” features colorful illustrations based on real family photos.

“You can now tell other children what war is through the prism of a 3-year-old’s worldview,” she said. “And, in fact, ‘what happened?’ ‘Who attacked us?’”

She’s now working on another book, one she hoped she’d never have to write: “Why Did Dad Die?” This past June, Vasyl was killed while serving in the Kupiansk area, now occupied by Russia. Otzemko has no guarantee she will ever get her husband’s body, but writing and sharing their story has given her purpose.

“My path was to share with people,” she said. She’s hoping to write several more books, including one explaining PTSD to children and one on amputation.

Khrystyna Shabat, a mother of two and an owner of several kindergartens, has found that her children prefer to read lighter stories. While she’s bought them books about Ukraine’s famous bomb-sniffing dog Patron, they favor fantasy series that provide an escape from the daily realities of war.

“We have so much war in our lives that I, for example, do not want to read books about war with my children,” Shabat said. “And so, my children read books not about the war, for example [they read] ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘Lord of the Rings.’”

Sashko Dermanskyi has been writing children’s books for 20 years and has penned around 40, including the popular trilogy, “Marvelous Monster,” with the first book translated into English. Last year, he published “Club of the Saved: Non-Fluffy Stories.” It features 10 stories about real people and their animals impacted by the war. The idea came from Tetiana Kopytova, who illustrated the book. 

“In fact, this is my saddest book,” he said. “I love writing happy books. This is the saddest and it’s clear why. But, at the same time, it’s very bright, because it’s about hope, about our good hearts.”

Kids have reacted well to the stories and often ask him for the book with the cat on the cover. But he said writing has been difficult these last couple of years. The war claimed his older brother, who left behind two young children. Spending time reading with kids has helped.

“I meet with children a lot, and it keeps me going,” he said. “It helps to keep going. Because when you see these little people in front of you and realize that they need you, that you are doing something important — and I hope that I am — it gives you some kind of strength.”