Book study: Akim court

Akim court is a French picture book created for Amnesty International. The reason I bought this book was to see how the illustrator managed to deal with the topics of war and displacement. Due to the text being written in French I am unable to understand exactly what is written. However the strength of the illustrations mean that I don't necessarily have to. The story can be understood through the images alone. Out of approximately 80 pages there are only 11 pages with text anyway.
The story centres around a boy who is taken from his daily tranquil life into the the midst of a war as bombs are dropped on his town from aeroplanes above. The sense of fear and urgency to flee the scene are very evident as shown on the front cover. The sense of apprehension, a lack of understanding as to what is happening is shown in such a simple manner (Fig 1).

Fig 1

The boy has to learn to deal with death very quickly as bodies lay across the landscape (Fig 2). The inquisitive nature of a child is demonstrated with a great deal of respect for both parties (Fig 3). We soon realise that the child has lost his parents, he has been displaced with no one but strangers to turn to for comfort until he finds a lost teddy.

Fig 2

Fig 3

Once the army arrive fear takes over and drives him to make a run for it. Once he meets others trying to escape the atrocities and flee the land they once called home he is adopted again by a mother/grandmother with child. These images bring to mind the current refugee crisis that is happening with scenes of people filling boats (Fig 4) and lines of people carrying all that they own, searching and hoping for a better situation to be living in (Fig 5).

Fig 4

Fig 5

Eventually the boy does make it to a refugee camp where he finds his mother(Fig 6).

Fig 6

This book must be so prevalent to so many children throughout the world. Children who are staying in refugee camps right now, children who have had to flee the homes. This book may just give a sense of hope to those who have lost their family, the children or their parents. Whether than can read the language or not the story still prevails.
My initial reaction to the illustrations was that they seemed as though they were just taken straight from the sketchbook as if they were the proprietary drawings. On reflection these drawings actually suit the book perfectly, they give a great sense of the movement in each scene. The rough sketch like drawing show the roughness of war, beautifully illustrated coloured images would depict war in the wrong manner within this book. The drawings also allow any child to reflect themselves onto the story creating greater empathy from all readers as this could be any war anywhere in the world. The issues within this story are deep and have been handled in a subtle manner although each image has it's own powerful message within. I truly hope that this book has given some people the courage to hold on to their hopes of being reunited with family or friends or just for a better life. The book delves into topics that have happened throughout history, are happening at this very point in time and are likely to continue happening in the future. Many children here in the UK may not be able to place themselves in this book but this may help in understanding the plight of others they may meet in life.