“Grandpa, tell me the story again of when we to sea.”

This is a big story, a story of upheaval and change, of uprooting. The book opens with the dictionary definition of the word ‘uprooting‘ opposite a comforting, bright illustration of Grandpa and One-Button seated at the kitchen table. It’s story time so we settle down for more. Then with the page turn everything changes. The pretty tendrils of the previous pages are transformed into strong branches breaking through the ground, a grey sky looms and the family and their neighbours are fleeing ‘to the boats‘ with fear and worry etched on their faces. The story continues in question and answer format with little One-Button drawing information and detail from his grandpa.

As the story continues we accompany the travellers across the sea, sometimes happy and sometimes scared they help each other by singing songs, sharing tools to mend broken boats and always in the knowledge that they have each other. The journey is longer than they expected but they have their memories and their dreams to sustain them. Eventually they discover that it is safe to return and they go to where they belong and longed to be. But this is not the end of their story rather the beginning of new ones as the final page depicts One-Button and his friend swing happily in their boat hanging from a tree.

This collaboration is extremely well executed and has the tone of a fable or traditional tale. One-Button and the Sea could be read and shared in a multitude of ways and each of them would spark thought, conversation and most importantly, hope, encouragement and understanding. The upheaval the characters experience may of course relate to refugees but equally this may refer to any trauma such as bereavement, flooding, or major life change or simply a period of difficulty. The question and answer structure moves the narrative along but also encourages children to ask questions of their own and possibly to try to provide answers to those posed too. This book could be a valuable tool for use in schools or similar settings to enable conversations about difficult topics.

Sara Stanley’s text flows easily with a poetic quality making it lovely to read aloud and Viviane Schwarz’s quirky and distinctive illustrative style fits the story perfectly. Each double page spread contains detail to talk about and the expressions on the characters convey differing emotions with charm.

One- Button and the Sea is a powerful story with important themes but told in an accessible manner making it suitable for quite a wide age range. Published by Scallywag Press and highly recommended for primary school classrooms. There are teaching resources and activities and games freely available on the publisher’s website.

I should like to thank the publishers for my review copy. One-Button and the Sea was published on 1st August.