We open uncomfortable windows

GironaAt a time when armed conflicts dominate the news, it's important to remember that children are also aware of them and interested in what's happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere, and all that stems from it: the violence and death, the hunger and poverty, the power and vulnerability, the disrupted daily lives, and the fear. We can avoid these topics altogether, or we can find sensitive ways to address them, and literature can be one of those paths. This was the starting point of the 10th Publishing-Education Symposium, held on October 28th at the Faculty of Education and Psychology of the University of Girona, with the participation of Pablo Larraguibel, editor at Ekaré, and Blanca Andelic, a technician from the Pla de l'Estany-Banyoles Social Welfare Consortium.

Larraguibel emphasized that books should inspire the pleasure of reading, but they are also windows to other worlds and mirrors that allow us to see ourselves and understand our society. This is the raison d'être of the Ekaré publishing house, which gives voice to different cultures, landscapes, skin colors, and political situations through picture books. However, it is often adults who close these windows because they don't know how to address topics like war or migration. But not everything has simple answers, and sometimes it is necessary to talk about these issues honestly, without knowing where the conversation will lead. Raw stories like At night on the streetThe works of Ángela Lago (Ekaré, 2014) can be cathartic. In fact, a book doesn't always have to convey the hope of a better world; it can generate indignation, be a catalyst for devising solutions.

Diverse Classrooms

Andelic pondered what would have become of us if the horrors of history had not been documented, and argued that humanity has always been a constant flow of populations. He also maintained that Catalonia and its classrooms are and will continue to be diverse. Everyone has some experience of migration within their family, so it is worth asking: What makes us foreigners or locals, and who has the power to decide that? Classics like those of Tahar Ben Jelloun, Racism explained to my daughter (Empúries, 1998), or Islam explained to our children (La Magrana, 2002), open avenues of understanding and respect.

In the literary field, the need arose to address diversity as a fundamental aspect, not merely as a form—that is, integrated into the stories. The danger of well-intentioned books that reflect an idealized world was denounced, as they can be boring and ineffective. In contrast, more disruptive picture books such as Memoirs of a Gambling GrandmotherDayal Kaur Khalsa's (2004), in which a girl explains the anecdotes of her grandmother, a Ukrainian exile, can generate deep conversations.

Although there are often no readily available books about the Gaza genocide or the war in Ukraine, because it takes time for a story to become a book, there are many about other conflicts that can be useful in the classroom, such as The composition (Skármeta and Ruano, 2000), set during the Chilean dictatorship, or classics such as The Diary of Anne Frank, which emerged from World War II, and From The Diary of Zlata Filipovic (Column, 1995), from the Balkan War.

Perhaps literature cannot stop any war or reverse any border, but it can help us face them head-on and educate a generation capable of asking questions we don't yet know how to answer.