You Don't Know What War Is

LoveReading Says

With a foreword by Michael Morpurgo, Yeva Skalietska’s You Don’t Know What War Is shares a stirring, child-centred story about the war in Ukraine that the world needs to hear, and everyone should read. 

“Until you’ve been there, you don’t know what war is.” 12-year-old Yeva’s words strike bone-deep from the opening of her extraordinary diary. It begins on 14th February 2022 when she’s happily celebrating her birthday in her Kharkiv home. A mere ten days later, Yeva’s world shatters when she’s “woken suddenly by a loud metallic sound that echoed through the streets”, and sees Granny “standing by the window, looking towards the Russian border. She was watching missiles flying over the fields.”

Yeva evokes the immediate aftermath of worrying about friends, finding shelter, and seeing snipers on the streets with chilling clarity. Her voice rings with remarkable honesty — “My heart is full of fear. What will happen next is anyone’s guess …”

Then, while sheltering in a basement, Yeva began write this document of her experiences, from dealing with escalating day-to-day dangers, to the journey she and Granny take to Dublin, and beyond as Yeva starts school, makes new friends, while desperately missing loved ones back home.

As Michael Morpurgo writes in his introduction, “Once read, we will have lived it with Yeva, through her words. Once read, we don’t forget. Yeva’s utterly compelling story stays with us.” I’ll leave the last wise, soul-stirring words to Yeva, though: “I want to finish by saying this: we are only children, and we deserve to live a life of peace and happiness!”

Joanne Owen

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