Sea Prayer

Author: Khaled Hosseini
Genre: Picture Book, Children's Fiction
Type: Hardcover
Pages: 48
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Viking (Random House)
First Published: September 18, 2018
First Line: "My dear Marwan, in the long summers of childhood, when I was a boy the age you are now, your uncles and I spread our mattress on the roof of your grandfather's farmhouse outside of Homs."

Book Description from GoodReads: The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and And the Mountains Echoed responds to the heartbreak of the current refugee crisis with this deeply moving, beautifully illustrated short work of fiction for people of all ages, all over the world.

A short, powerful, illustrated book written by beloved novelist Khaled Hosseini in response to the current refugee crisis, Sea Prayer is composed in the form of a letter, from a father to his son, on the eve of their journey. Watching over his sleeping son, the father reflects on the dangerous sea-crossing that lies before them. It is also a vivid portrait of their life in Homs, Syria, before the war, and of that city’s swift transformation from a home into a deadly war zone.

Impelled to write this story by the haunting image of young Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed upon the beach in Turkey in September 2015, Hosseini hopes to pay tribute to the millions of families, like Kurdi’s, who have been splintered and forced from home by war and persecution, and he will donate author proceeds from this book to the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to help fund lifesaving relief efforts to help refugees around the globe.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Viking Books (Random House) for providing me with a complimentary hardcover copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

My Review: After reading about the three-year-old Syrian child whose body washed ashore in 2015, Khaled Hosseini was inspired to write this picture book to shed light on the refugee crisis. Accompanying the simple, yet powerful story are the water colour illustrations by Dan Williams which capture the emotion vividly.

With simple prose, Hosseini has written a story about one man and his young son as they're getting ready to cross the ocean in the hopes of finding a better life. Included in the story are descriptions of their lives and their country before the devastation and the drastic changes afterwards. This is an emotional story as readers witness the father's fear, his deep love for his son and his hope that they will find a safe and welcoming country to take them in.

My hope is that this book will encourage discussion about the refugee crisis and encourage compassion and sympathy for those who risk their lives only to have the freedoms and safety that we often take for granted.

Note: All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the UN Refugee Agency and The Khaled Hosseini Foundation to help fund life-saving relief efforts that will aid refugees around the world.