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The Colour of HomeMary Hoffman
The Colour of Home
by Mary Hoffman
Hassan's first day at an English school is grey and cold, so he paints a picture of the home he left, and then paints what happened there.
A story about children and families, gentle and moving in tone. We would put it with children of 5–8, and at a reading age of about 6 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Wartime separation
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
Hassan has just arrived in England from war-torn Somalia, and on his first bewildering days at a new school, where he cannot speak the language and everything is grey and strange, he paints a picture that lets his teacher glimpse the colour, warmth and terror of the home he has lost. Mary Hoffman's picture book handles the refugee experience with great gentleness and honesty, showing both the frightening reasons a family flees and the disorientation of arriving somewhere utterly foreign. The difficult events — the war, the loss — are conveyed with care and restraint, appropriate for a young child, and the ending offers real hope as Hassan begins to find his place. For a three- to seven-year-old it is a valuable, moving read-aloud that builds empathy for children who have arrived from elsewhere, and a gentle, well-judged way to help any child begin to understand what it means to be a refugee, without frightening them.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.