Walking to School

Waking up in her bed surrounded by pretty yellow wallpaper, Allison is growing up in the middle of the Protestants versus the Catholics in Northern Ireland. She's a Catholic and to walk to primary school means she risks the taunts and the rocks of the Protestants, adults and children alike. Today she is going to walk with her Uncle Frank, a man she no longer trusts. She overheard him late one night talking about giving Liam Connors what he deserves, after all he is seeing a Protestant girl. "Eyes straight ahead. Pretend they aren't there," is the guidance she's given. But they are there and they're loud and mean and angry and there is hatred all around her. Then, in the middle of the crowd, Allison drops her button and it rolls away. A young Protestant girl picks it up and instantly Allison expects her to keep it but the girl holds it out to her ready to return it. The girls talk and it's clear they are both caught up in a mess of the adults making. Neither wants to live this way. The children hate the fighting. They want to be friends. "If the grownups would let us." 32 pages Ages 5-9