1. Art motifs
2. Courage
3. Emotions
4. Empathy
5. Freedom
6. Futures
7. Hope
8. Imagination
9. Memory
10. Refugees
11. Resilience
12. Survival
13. Time

Celebrating the power of imagination, memory and creative expression, this is a story set in a refugee camp as seen through the eyes of a young boy called Idris and the memories of older refugees. Idris has lived his entire life in the refugee camp, and the reader is introduced to him as he gazes directly at the reader, his face only partially illuminated by moonlight. Surprisingly, for a book subtitled ‘a story of hope’, this text has a predominantly muted colour palette, with deep shadows and points of light in both visual and verbal texts weaving a relatively simple story. A wisp of light visits Idris one night, and leads him to other refugees in the camp who are then infused with the hope that the wisp of light represents and are able to recall happier memories and better times through speaking, singing and sharing. The play on words between ‘wisp’ and ‘wish’ is explored through the imaginations of both old and young. Hopes and wishes in this context are both intrinsic and extrinsic.

Text and image work together in this picture book to convey empathy for and understanding of refugee experiences. Through the use of metaphor in both visual and textual forms, glimpses of the normal, extraordinary and relatable lives of individual refugees are provided, setting up temporal gaps between ‘then’, ‘now’ and the future.

Single words referring to memories or the future are in larger font, and iIlustrations devoted to memories and the future have more light and white space, but sombre tones and deep shadows persist across all pages. Neither text or illustrations give clues as to where the refugee camp is and readers are encouraged to see the universal in the particular and the particular in the general as each character is introduced. The illustrations create connection between reader and characters, with close up direct gazes and economical use of perspective that shifts between the detail of an old man’s foot, the hands of a woman, and a bird’s eye view of tents in the camp. There are hints of allegory in some illustrations, such as the double page spread when the old man with his walking stick and the young-man-memory with arms raised and outstretched has echoes of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.

1. Teacher Resources by Robyn Sheahan-Bright from the publisher’s website https://cdn.hachette.com.au/resources/9780734418043-teachers-resources.pdf
2. UK Book Trust Interview with Zana Fraillon ‘A story of hope’: Zana Fraillon on how she wrote a picture book about refugees 16 October 2018 https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2018/october/a-story-of-hope-zana-fraillon-on-how-she-wrote-a-picture-book-about-refugees/
3. Teacher notes from Weebly.com on ‘Wisp A Story of Hope Zana Fraillon and Grahame Baker-Smith’ http://4-7literature.weebly.com/wisp-a-story-of-hope.html
4. Kids’ Book Review review by Anastasia Gonis, 18 November 2018 http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2018/11/review-wisp-story-of-hope.html
5. ReadPlus Review by Fran Knight, 4 November 2018 https://www.readplus.com.au/reviews/wisp-by-zana-fraillon
6. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Teaching materials and resources by age on the refugee experience https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/teaching-about-refugees.html?query=for%20teachers
7. Finding Home is an app available free from the Apple app store, developed by the UNHCR around the story of a 16-year-old Rohingya refugee https://apps.apple.com/us/app/finding-home-a-refugees-journey/id1234931023
8. Refugee Council of Australia, general information and resources on refugees in Australia https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au