The Endless Sea
Chi Thai and Linh Dao
Walker Studio

This is a heartrending story of having to leave your home and go in search of a new, safe place to live, told through the eyes of a young girl. She, her parents and sister lived in a Vietnamese village which they were forced to leave on account to being on the losing side of a war.

After a long and arduous journey walking under cover of darkness, the family eventually reached a wooden boat that was to carry them, crammed tight for four days, down a river. Then on the fifth day a fierce storm arose, the boat’s pump gave up working and the boat began sinking.

Eventually a ship reached the now rapidly sinking boat, a pallet was lowered and the family lifted to safety. The rescuing ship carried them to a refugee camp where they waited until they were flown to a new country and given a new home. Despite recalling the traumas they’ve been through, the young narrator considers how lucky her family has been

especially when a year on, they are able to celebrate New Year together, hungry no longer but hopeful and able to look forward to many more days together.

Author Chi Thai’s note at the end of the book makes it even more poignant as she writes of how she aged three and her family came to the UK as refugees, for which she is enormously grateful. She goes on to talk of the 36 million refugees there now are and reminds readers how crucial it is that they are treated with compassion. Linh Dao’s illustrations are appropriately sombre during the traumatic escape contrasting with the uplifting scenes of the family established in their new home.

A book to share widely in primary classrooms to help foster that vital compassion and understanding the author speaks of.