The Day War Came, written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb. Candlewick Press, Penguin Random House, 2018. $19.99 ages 6 and up

"I can't say the words that tell you
about the blackened hole
that had been my home.

All I can say is this:
War took everything.
War took everyone.
I was ragged, bloody, all alone."

After hearing a story about a refugee child who could not attend school because there was no chair for her, Nicola was compelled to write this poem. After publication in The Guardian with illustrated images of empty chairs, it influenced many, many people to post their own photos of empty chairs with the hashtag #3000chairs. In this timely and stirring picture book, she reminds us that kindness is at the heart of the human condition and we all have the power to share it with others.

It is not an easy read; it is unquestionably a necessary one. More than half the people forced to leave them homes because of conflict and endless suffering are children ... just like yours, mine, ours. Can you imagine? I doubt it.

The young girl begins her day with her family at breakfast. Mom walks her to school where she spends her morning learning. The afternoon changes everything ... a bomb explodes nearby, destroying everything she knows.

The aftermath is terrifying. Walking, riding, sailing to an unfamiliar destination with people she doesn't know ... alone and scared and with little hope.

"But war had followed me.
It was underneath my skin,
behind my eyes,
and in my dreams.
It had taken possession of my heart."

Accepted by no one, turned away at school when there is no chair, and finally seeing kindness in the face of a young boy with a chair in his hand, she begins to heal. Children come from all around, carrying chairs, offering an invitation and assurance that all children will find a place in their classroom. 

Colored pencil and watercolor artwork by Rebecca Cobb does not sugar-coat the terrible effects of war, and displacement. There is darkness and terror in the face of the bombing, and in the hut she finds for shelter once she arrives in a new place, There is also a hint of hope on the faces of the kind children who help her begin to 'push back' the war that has turned her life upside down.

We all need to be kind, and hopeful. Children often lead the way!