Seven Million Sunflowers by Malcom Duffy ~ Blog Tour

15-year-old Kateryno and her family live in Kharkiv. Their lives are shattered when on February 24th 2022 the Russian army invades. Their apartment block is struck by a missile. After weeks living in their basement, Kateryno, her mother, and brother, decide to leave, joining seven million Ukrainian refugees. They come to England and meet their host family, the Hawkins. But their new beginning brings a whole new set of problems.

Seven Million Sunflowers was published in February 2024 to mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and to recognise Refugee Week in June. I’m so pleased to be a part of the blog tour in honour of this important week.

Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Established in 1998 in the UK, this annual festival aligns with World Refugee Day, celebrated globally on June 20th. You can find out more about this important event here.

Seven Million Sunflowers is a compelling and honest story of a young teen and her family trying to make sense of all they’ve had to leave behind while building a new (but hopefully temporary) life in the UK. News of friends and family in danger is heartbreaking – more so because there’s nothing they can do to help. Kateryno has to face far more than any 15-year-old should as she worries about her father who has joined the army, relives the horror of the midnight destruction of her bedroom and tries to find her way in the difficult teen world of her new school. Clothes, boys, a difficult older brother and national exams (from two countries!) make Kat an incredibly relatable character which, in turn, makes the terror she’s faced even more real for readers.

Malcolm Duffy has written this gripping story from his own experiences of hosting a Ukrainian family following the Russian invasion in 2022 allowing him to provide real insight into the challenges faced by teen refugees.

Seven Million Sunflowers is an unquestionable must-read for secondary school teachers and students to develop essential understanding and build empathy. It could be used as a form-time read, to inspire assemblies with extracts and further information about how to support teen refugees, or to support PSHE lessons about inclusion and welcome.

My own children’s secondary school has just gained “Schools of Sanctuary” status – a growing network of more than 680 primary and secondary schools, nurseries and sixth forms all committed to creating a culture of welcome, understanding and belonging for those forced to flee. It is books like this that will help schools understand more about the feelings of teen refugees and, most importantly, how they are so much like children in the UK. They want to feel safe, cared for and to fit in.

Thank you to Zephyr Books and Laura Smythe for the opportunity to read such an important book.