Inclusive library services

Coventry Libraries and Information Service supports the ‘City of Sanctuary’ vision that the UK will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We endorse the City of Sanctuary Charter and agree to act in accordance with City of Sanctuary values and apply the network principles within our work (as far as our specific context enables us to).

We recognise the contribution of people seeking sanctuary. Sanctuary seekers are welcomed, included and supported within our context. We expect our branches or local groups (if any) to support their local City of Sanctuary group if one exists, and will facilitate contact between them and their local City of Sanctuary group.

We are willing for our organisation’s name to be added to a list of supporters of City of Sanctuary, linked to our website. We are also willing to be contacted by City of Sanctuary with further ideas for how we can turn our support into practical action and to discuss ways we might work together to promote the vision further.

Libraries of Sanctuary is an initiative to inspire, support and promote the use of public libraries as places of welcome for people seeking sanctuary in the UK. It recognises the good practice of libraries which welcome new arrivals into their community and seek to foster a culture of welcome and inclusivity.

For further information please visit the Library of Sanctuary website and the Coventry City of Sanctuary website.

The City of Sanctuary organisation has created a recommended booklist. To borrow a copy please search the library catalogue, reserve or request any of these books.

Children's books

Up to 5 years

• A Home Full of Friends by Peter Bently and Charles Fuge
• The Jasmine Sneeze by Nadine Kaadan
• Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxbury

Key Stage 1

• Paddington by Michael Bond
• The Colour of Home by Mary Hoffman
• The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter
• The Silence Seeker by Ben Morley
• The Journey by Francesca Sanna
• Seeking Refuge series by Andy Glynne (five books: Ali’s Story, Hamid’s Story, Rachel’s Story, Julianne’s Story, Navid’s Story)
• My Name Is Sangoel by Karen Lynn Williams
• 10,000 Bowls of Soup by Ross Frowen and Claire Steele
• Me and My Fear by Francesca Sanna
• Everybody’s Welcome by Patricia Hegarty
• Beegu by Alexis Deacon
• Lubna and the Pebble by Wendy Meddour and Daniel Egnéus
• A Child’s Garden by Michael Foreman
• The Colour of Home by Mary Hoffman and Karin Littlewood
• Elmer and the Hippos by David McKee
• Something Else by Kathryn Cave and Chris Riddell
• Two Giants by Michael Foreman
• Frog and the Stranger by Max Velthuijs
• Here I am by Patti Kim and Sonia Sánchez
• The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon
• There's a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins
• Green Lizards vs Red Rectangles by Steve Antony
• The Suitcase by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
• My Name is Not Refugee by Kate Milner
• Lily and the Polar Bears by Jion Sheibani
• Refugees by Brian Bilston
• Mama’s Nightingale by Edwidge Danticat

Lower Key Stage Two

• Azzi in Between by Sarah Garland
• Christophe's Story by Nicki Cornwell, illustrated by Karin Littlewood
• Moon Man by Tomi Ungerer
• The Silence Seeker by Ben Morley
• The Day War Came by Nicola Davies and Rebecca Cobb
• War and Peas by Michael Foreman
• We Are All Born Free
• Refuge by Anne Booth and Sam Usher
• Angus Rides the Goods Train by Alan Durant and Chris Riddell
• Moose by Michael Foreman
• The Conquerors by David McKee
• When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest and P J Lynch
• Nadine Dreams of Home by Bernard Ashley
• The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf, illustrated by Pippa Curnick
• Sami's Silver Lining (The Lost and Found Book 2) by Cathy Cassidy
• Pitch Invasion by Tom Palmer
• Tender Earth by Sita Brahmachari
• Ballerina Dreams by Michaela and Elaine DePrince, illustrated by Ella Okstad
• The Abominables by Eva Ibbotson
• Teacup by Rebecca Young and Matt Ottley
• When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest
• The Unforgotten Coat by Cottrell Boyce
• Tomorrow by Nadine Kadaan
• Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann
• Gervelie's Journey: A Refugee Diary by Anthony Robinson, Annemarie Young and June Allan
• There's a Boy Just Like Me by Fraiser Cox & Alison Brown
• Stepping Stones: A refugee family's journey by Margriet Ruurs, Nizar Ali Badr & Falah Raheem
• There's Room for Everyone by Anahita Teymorian
• Charlie's Promise by Annemarie Allan
• King of the Sky by Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin
• Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte

Upper Key Stage 2/Key Stage Three

• Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
• My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarejevo Diary by Nadja Halilbegovich
• Mai Ya’s Long Journey by Sheila Cohen
• Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipovic
• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
• One Day We Had to Run
• Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams
• The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Nadine Dreams Of Home by Bernard Ashley
• I Am David by Anne Holm
• A Refugee Diary Series by Anthony Robinson (four books: Gervelie’s Journey, Mohammed’s Journey, Meltem’s Journey, Hamzat’s Journey)
• Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
• Refugee Boy (a play adapted from the novel) by Lemn Sissay
• The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• Refugees and Migrants (Children in Our World) by Ceri Roberts and Hanane Kai
• Walk in my Shoes by Alwyn Evans
• The Journey by Francesca Sanna
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• The Island by Armin Greder
• The Mediterranean by Armin Greder
• A Story Like the Wind by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Jo Weaver
• Oranges in No Man's Land by Elizabeth Laird
• Boy Overboard by Moris Gleitzman
• No Ballet Shoes in Syria by Catherine Bruton
• The Eleventh Trade by Alyssa Hollingsworth, illustrated by Richard Merritt
• Coming to England by Floella Benjamin, illustrated by Michael Frith
• The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• Red Leaves by Sita Brahmachari
• Boy 87 by Ele Fountain
• Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
• A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell
• The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
• Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah
• After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross
• In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda, translated by Italian by Howard Curtis
• Children Growing up with War by Jenny Matthews
• Who Are Refugees and Migrants? By Michael Rosen & Annemarie Young
• Amina by J.L. Powers
• Looking at the Stars by Jo Cotterill
• Child Soldier: when boys and girls are used in war by Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chilkwanine
• Illegal by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin and Giovanni Rigano
• Far from Home by Cath Senker
• Forced to Flee: refugee children drawing on their experiences by Laura Padoan and Matthew Saltmarsh
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
• Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
• The Other Side of Truth by Beverly Naidoo
• Jackdaw Summer by David Almond
• Give Me Shelter by Tony Bradman
• The Island by Armin Greder
• Child I by Steve Tasane
• A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell
• Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
• Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
• Running on the Roof of the World by Jess Butterworth
• Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow by Siobhan Curham
• The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle by Victoria Williamson
• A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope by Michael Foreman
• Do You Speak Chocolate by Cas Lester
• Front Desk by Kelly Yang
• House Without Walls by Ching Yeung Russell
• Front Desk by Kelly Yang
• Boy, Everywhere by A.M. Dassu
• The Tale O’ the Glasgow Girls by Euan Girvan

KS4 and Young Adult

• Little Soldier by Bernard Ashley
• No Gun For Asmir by Christobel Mattingley
• Red Leaves by Sita Brahmachari
• Hidden by Miriam Halahmy
• Dreaming of Home by Hong Dam
• A Dangerous Crossing by Jane Mitchell
• Tender Earth by Sita Brahmachari
• The Lightless Sky by Gulwali Passerlay
• Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird
• Looking At The Stars by Jo Cotterill
• Alpha by Bessora & Barroux, translated from French by Sarah Ardizzone
• Here I Stand: stories that speak for freedom edited by Amnesty International UK
• Migrations: Open Hearts, Open Borders edited by The International Centre for the Picture Book in Society
• Hidden by Miriam Halahmy
• The Ones That Disappeared by Zana Fraillon
• Inheritance by Balli Kaur Jaswal
• The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
• Asylum by Rachel Anderson
• I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
• If You Were Me by Sam Hepburn
• One Crow Alone by Sophie Crockett
• Secrets in the Fire by Henning Mankell, translated by Anne Stuksrud
• Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
• Looking at the Stars by Jo Cotterill
• Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
• Selling Your Father's Bones by Brian Schofield

Adult

Fantasy

• Toggle by Wyon Stansfeld
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Novels

• The Go-Away Bird by Warren Fitzgerald
• Vanished by Ahmed Masoud
• What Is The What by Dave Eggers
• A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips
• By The Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
• The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini
• The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
• This Is Where I Am by Karen Campbell
• Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones
• Harare North by Brian Chikwava
• Minaret by Leila Aboulela
• Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela
• Refusal Shoes by Tony Saint
• The Optician of Lampedusa by Emma Jane Kirby
• We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
• Welcome to Paradise by Mahi Binebine
• The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages by Sophie Hardach
• The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
• Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
• Outcasts United by Warren St John
• Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon
• Many Rivers to Cross by Dylan Moore

Biographies and auto-biographies

• The Pianist of Yarmouk by Aeham Ahmad
• Antigona and Me by Kate Clanchy
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• Cast Away by Charlotte McDonald-Gibson
• City of Thorns by Ben Rawlence
• Embracing the Infidel by Bahzad Yaghmaian
• Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria and Iraq by Sarah Glidden
• Bluebird: A Memoir by Vesna Maric
• A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Bah
• Slave by Mende Nazar and Damien Lewis
• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
• Strength in What Remains by Tracey Kidder
• Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman
• The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
• Tears of Salt: A Doctor’s Story - Situated more than one hundred miles off Italy’s southern coast, the rocky island of Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism and hoping to make a new life in Europe. Dr. Pietro Bartolo, who runs the lone medical clinic on the island, has been caring for many of them—both the living and the dead—for a quarter century.
• Refugee Tales
• Refugee Tales: Volume II
• Refugee Tales: Volume III

Short Stories

• breach by Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes
• Refugee Tales I and II edited by David Herd and Anna Pincus
• The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle
• The Last Tram by Nedim Gursel
• Jokes for the Gunmen by Mazen Maarouf

Poetry

• Birds Without Sky: Poems From Exile by Malka al-Haddad
• Welcome to Leicester edited by Emma Lee and Ambrose Musiyiwa
• Refugee by Sophie Nicholls
• Hands and Wings
• Over Land, Over Sea edited by Kathleen Bell, Emma Lee and Siobhan Logan
• No Friend But The Mountains by Behrouz Boochani
• On the Move: Poems about Migration by Michael Rosen

Collections

• Are You Happy With That?
• The Mara Crossing by Ruth Padel
• My Heart Loves in My Language
• Trauma Awareness Publishing has launched two books:
• ‘Under the Shade of a Tree: Somali Women Speak’
• ‘Leaving Our Homeland: Syria to the Isle of Bute’
• The Journey Back from Hell by Anton Gill - a collection of testimonies from Holocaust survivors

Non-fiction

Refugees

• Human Cargo by Caroline Moorhead
• The Book of Boaz: Jesus and His Family Sought Asylum - What Welcome Would They Have Found in Modern Britain? by Dave Smith
• The Road Before Me Weeps by Nick Thorpe

Migration

• Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders and Global Crisis edited by Jenna M. Lloyd et al
• Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain by Robert Winder
• Us and Them?: The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Controls by Bridget Anderson
• Seeking Sanctuary: A History of Refugees in Britain by Jane Marchese Robinson