17 to 23 June 2024, Refugee Week
Refugee Week is a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.
I will be taking part in an online event with The Anne Frank Trust
Sign up here now: https://forms.office.com/e/KF0rrFiryA
More Refugee Week resources follow below and here are a selection of my relevant books …
After the War (Barrington Stoke) Tom “This is the story of 300 children, Holocaust survivors who came to live in Cumbria in 1945, direct from the concentration camps of Europe. It is based on survivor testimonies”
D-Day D
og (Barrington Stoke)
Tom “I wanted to think about how today’s refugees are part of our history, part of our future and that is why it is so good to welcome them to the UK”
Gus the Fantastic Football Cat (Egmont, KS1)
Tom “This is about a Syrian girl and her dad who look after a rescue cat when they arrive in the UK from Syria. The parallel of the girl taken in by a UK community and her, in turn, taking a rescue cat in is the only thing about the story that relates to her background. The rest of the story is hopefully a lot lighter, as the cat reveals it can predict World Cup football results.”
Pitch Invasion (Barrington Stoke)
Tom “This is a bit more direct. The story is about a haunted hillfort in Cornwall and a ghostbusting duo – Seth and Nadiya – who realise there is a parallel between the ghost of Iron Age refugees escaping the brutal Romans by heading west and two Syrian boys – Galip and Aylan – who have recently been taken in by a Cornish family, after tragedy in Syria. The refugees I describe could well have been some of your Iron Age ancestors, people who might have been part of Boudica’s Iceni tribe after she was killed fighting them. I wanted to think about how there are refugees now just as there always have been. People have always had to flee. Then and now.”
“Several of my latest published books have featured child refugees who have made it to the UK to be taken in by families and communities.
I did this because I have visited many schools and communities that have children who are refugees from Syria (and other troubled places in the world) and met them and heard their stories.
That – and reading books and articles about the war – motivated me to develop Yusra, Galip and Aylan as characters in my children’s books.
I did it, also, because I want children who are in all schools to be able to read about how we – in our relatively safe and stable country – can help people whose lives have been smashed to pieces and how we need to remember this country has a history of taking in and accepting refugees.”
Refugee Week June 2023
“Boat People” with the National Literacy Trust includes :
- 5 very short stories about people who have had to escape danger by boat, set in the years 1914, 1943, 1975, 2010 and today
Available in print to read aloud from here
Or to watch being read aloud by me from here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmmlG7jutI-1sTB2jvWewnZQBc-eQlddq
- an introductory assembly (15 minutes long) from me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzUXr-o3g9M
- 5 writing exercises delivered by video, relating to the stories and the theme of refugees, with worksheets for the children here
- a teachers’ guide here
- Combined powerpoint very kindly shared by Penketh High of all the writing exercises for lesson time here.
Certificate for your school or classroom or for individual work
Download here
Refugee Week 2022
Watch Now “NLT Refugee Week virtual event: In Conversation with Tom Palmer” recorded from 20 June 2022 here
Certificate to share with your pupils here.
“The Girl in the Lewandowski Top” – is a FREE 5 part story about a Ukrainian Refugee in 2022 with teacher guide and worksheets. This was written for Refugee Week 2022 for the National Literacy Trust but can be used all year round.
“Them” – is a FREE 5 part read aloud story set in 1945, from the point of view of the children in the Lake District community who received 300 child refugees from the Nazi concentration camps after the end of the Second World War. This was written for Holocaust Memorial Day 2022 for the National Literacy Trust but can be used all year round.
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- Read “Them” here
- A powerpoint introducing “Them” here
- 5 short films and worksheets to support “Them” story and inspire pupils to write their own responses here
- A teacher guide with ideas and sources to support your delivery of “Them” and children’s writing here
- 5 short films of Tom reading out loud “Them” available from here
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“The Question” is a FREE 5 part read aloud story set today, from the point of view of pupils meeting a Holocaust survivor at their school and asking them about their refugee experience. This was written for Holocaust Memorial Day 2021 for the National Literacy Trust but can be used all year round.
You can also find out more about the Windermere children’s story in my children’s book “After the War from Auschwitz to Ambleside” here.
If you would like a reminder of when these resources will be available please use the contact form below. Please be patient. Our replies are not automated so you will get a personal reply. See T&Cs.
Buy Books
Signed and dedicated copies from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot” here.
Visit my 
bookshop or support your local bookshop HIVE
Overseas : FREE Delivery worldwide from The Book Depository.
Australia: Boomerang
Canada: Amazon Canada
New Zealand: Wheelers
USA : Indigo books
Schools bumper book pack and class set offers here.
Email me here for more information or use my contact form here to ask me a question.
Thank you.
Please catch up on the latest interview with me about writing Angel of Grasmere in my Guest Edited edition of lovereading4kids 
Angel of Grasmere:from Dunkirk to the Fells
Thursday 30 May 2024 11-3pm Imperial War Museum North
Reading D-Day Dog and my free resources like blackout poems are a great way to commemorate this year’s 80th Anniversary of D-Day.
Signed and dedicated copies of all my books are available personalised to order from my local independent children’s bookshop “The Thoughtful Spot” 
Overseas :
Schools class set offer 
To celebrate the forthcoming publication of my latest book, Angel of Grasmere, I am offering a special souvenir reader’s pack.
Here is a little gallery of some of the wonderful class and home work already created by children and teachers in response to “Arctic Star”.
Winter 1943. Teenagers Frank, Joseph and Stephen are Royal Navy recruits on their first mission at sea during the Second World War, on HMS Belfast part of an Arctic convoy sailing to Russia to deliver supplies to the Soviets. The convoys have to navigate treacherous waters, sailing through a narrow channel between the Arctic ice pack and German bases on the Norwegian coast. Faced with terrifying enemy attacks from both air and sea, as well as life-threatening cold, gales and pack ice, will all three boys make it home again?
Schools class set offer 
Here is a little gallery of some of the wonderful class and home work already created by children and teachers in response to “Over the Line”.
The children enjoyed reading ‘Over the Line’ as their class text, as part of their World War I unit of work. Alongside the classroom learning, the children worked with dance artist, Rachel Towe, to explore the themes of the book and use them in the creative process to create a dance. The dance was performed at a local dance festival where primary and secondary schools came together to share and celebrate dance work. The children performed to a public audience of nearly 300 people in a local professional venue, The Brewery Arts Centre, in Kendal. Many of the children had never performed in a professional venue or on stage before.
The dance begins when the outbreak of war is all over the newspapers. The footballers are distracted, their heads are still in the game. Eventually, they sign up. Then they become lost in the horrors of the frontline. The dance also included the extraordinary ceasefire on Christmas day; a magical historical moment that brought football back to the soldier’s life for a fleeting moment. The two opposing sides play football in ‘no man’s land’. Finally, the dance depicts the poppy fields, a symbol of the soldiers who died during WWI.
All involved in the project were excited to share the dance with Tom. They wondered if Tom had ever had a dance created that was inspired by one of his books before.
Dance Artist Rachel Towe explained… ‘
Over the Line is powerful historical novel about one footballer’s experience in the First World War. It’s 1914 and Jack is making his debut as a professional footballer. But the match is marred by a demonstration demanding that the players sign up to do their duty in France. It is not long before Jack is bound for the trenches with the Footballers’ Battalion.
Dress up ideas for all my books here 
Thursday 30 May 2024 11-3pm Imperial War Museum North
Rocky Race, the sister of Roy of the Rovers – has a new spin off series kicking off .
Schools bumper book pack 
Schools class set offer
