As part of our Meet the Author feature, we had the fantastic opportunity to talk with Di Gates and discuss her latest project, ‘Who is Your Neighbour?’ – a book that aims to help children comprehend the war in Ukraine while providing donations to support the wellbeing of Ukrainian children.
In honour of Children’s Mental Health Week, we wanted to highlight this book.
Read on to see what Di has to say about the creation of Who is Your Neighbour? and how you can support her efforts.
What is the book about?
Who is Your Neighbour? is a book we created to help children understand what's happening in Ukraine and, in particular, focus on how people in this country are helping those affected by the war by bringing them in as friends and neighbours.
The book takes children on a journey, asking them to explore who their neighbour is. Is it simply someone that lives next door, someone you pass in the street, or a neighbouring country? Or your neighbour could be someone that lives on a completely different planet.
Where did the idea for the book come from?
The idea first started after a conversation with my daughter. Her school had discussed with pupils the war in Ukraine, and her class watched a news clip. My daughter, who was eight then, naturally came home and had questions as she was really upset. She really found it difficult to process, and I could tell that something wasn’t right. She’d gone to bed that night and came down crying about this little girl that had been on the news clip who didn’t have time to take a teddy bear with her because she just had to flee, so the first idea for a book or another form of aid came about.
A few days later, I was watching the news when the evacuation process was getting into full swing. There was a point on the border where, every 15 seconds, a Polish family was coming and meeting a Ukrainian family to welcome them into their own home and provide aid. I just thought that this idea of neighbourliness, of humanity, that was coming through was a nice angle to take for a children’s book, which could then be used to talk about the harder elements of the war.
What was the creative process like?
We put the whole thing together in two weeks! It was amazing!
Once I’d watched that news footage of these Ukrainian families being met by Polish families, I sketched out the idea of Who is Your Neighbour? in 30-45 minutes.
I then put a call out to my designer, artist and illustrator friends, and told them I wanted the whole thing printed within two weeks. They thought I was joking. But we worked very collaboratively and everyone was just amazing.
My daughter was also a really strong thought in the creative process. We had a big debate about whether it should be ‘Who’s your Neighbour?’ or ‘Who is your Neighbour?’ And she was adamant it should be written out in full, not abbreviated. She won that battle.
My daughter reading the book for the first time was brilliant. She loves it.
What was the intention of the book?
We wanted the book to help open conversations with children about the war and raise money to help Ukrainian children.
One of the designers that I worked with found the Voices of Children Foundation. We reached out and they were so positive. As soon as we found out what they did as a charity, we really wanted to support them.
Who are the Voices of Children Foundation?
The Voices of Children Foundation are an established, Ukrainian-based charity founded in Ukraine after the Crimea invasion in 2013. They worked with children on the ground, using the arts and storytelling to help them overcome the traumas of war. They were hands-on in the midst of war. Every copy we sell of the book means that money goes to the Voices of Children Foundation. Each book costs £5, with every single penny going to charity.
How has the book been received?
Everyone’s been incredibly supportive. It’s been fantastic! We had a brilliant reception to launch the book. Seven Stories, which is based in Newcastle and is the National Centre for Children’s Literature, hosted a launch event for us. Local businesses, such as Nine Software, got together to help support and fund that.
We also have lots of schools using the book. Books have got into the hands of schools through sponsors like Reading Solutions UK, who have bulk-bought copies to disseminate out to their schools, and schools are using them in their classrooms to have discussions with children about what’s going on. Interestingly, it’s fed into the school’s equality and diversity elements in terms of who your neighbour is, broadening that out and helping children understand that we’ve all got much more in common than we have differences.
What do you hope for the future of the book?
My hope for children, what they get out of the book, is that despite the horror and trauma of war, what shines through is humanity and generosity, and people wanting to support people even though they were strangers five minutes earlier.
So far, we've raised about £9,000 through book sales for the Voices of Children Foundation. I've still got some books to sell, so it would be great to raise some more money. I've got a target of £10,000 in mind.
Individuals can go to our website and buy as many copies of the books as they want. Any businesses or organisations wishing to support can bulk buy - the usual is 50 copies to disseminate to staff or nearby schools.
Meet the team behind the book:
