Understanding Ukraine and Russia: A Guide for Kids and their Adults

Wellington is home to thousands of people of Ukrainian and Russian descent, as well as people from Polish, Belarusian, and other Eastern or Central-Eastern European backgrounds. The current conflict between Ukraine and Russia means that people who have moved here from those countries, or who have family there, are probably feeling pretty anxious, scared, or upset right now. And of course, whenever there is conflict happening somewhere in the world, it tends to find its way into our everyday lives — through the news, through TV or internet content, or through our friends or teachers at school talking about it — and it’s completely normal for that to make us feel a bit scared or anxious as well.

A man in Ukrainian cultural dress, including a tall fur cap and an elaborately-knotted brocade, is holding a small child in front of a festival stall which is decorated with sunflowers.

The Ukrainian stall at the Palmerston North Festival of Cultures in 2018. Note the Ukrainian flag in the background, as well as all the sunflowers — the sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. Image courtesy of Palmerston North City Library, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

One way that we can help ourselves, and others, is by learning as much as we can about the history and culture of those places, and how news gets created and reported. If we learn about that, we can understand more about what’s going on at the moment in Ukraine and Russia — which means we’ll be more aware of, and better able to process, what’s being reported in the media and what our friends, whānau, and the wider community are talking about.

The good news is that the library has a whole heap of resources — books and other things — to help you learn more about Ukraine, Russia, international conflict, and the media more generally. Read on to find out how the library can help you understand what’s going on in the world at the moment.


HINT: Many of the links in this blog go to the Encyclopaedia Britannica for Kids. This is accessible to all Wellington City Libraries patrons. But to access this wonderful resource, and the others mentioned in this blog, you’ll need to login using your library card number (on the back of your card) and 4 digit pin (last FOUR numbers of the phone number listed on your library account), and the link will take you straight there.


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Fun New Kids Fiction!

Image courtesy of SyndeticsTell Me by Joan Bauer

Feeling scared and powerless when her father’s anger escalates and her parents separate, twelve-year-old Anna spends the summer with her grandmother and decides to make a difference when she sees what seems to be a girl held against her will.

 

 

 

Image courtesy of SyndeticsThe Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud

“In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn’t made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood’s investigations. Finally, in a fit of anger, Anthony challenges his rival to a contest: the next time the two agencies compete on a job, the losing side will have to admit defeat in the Times newspaper. Things look up when a new client, Mr. Saunders, hires Lockwood & Co. to be present at the excavation of Edmund Bickerstaff, a Victorian doctor who reportedly tried to communicate with the dead. Saunders needs the coffin sealed with silver to prevent any supernatural trouble. All goes well-until George’s curiosity attracts a horrible phantom. Back home at Portland Row, Lockwood accuses George of making too many careless mistakes. Lucy is distracted by urgent whispers coming from the skull in the ghost jar. Then the team is summoned to DEPRAC headquarters. Kipps is there too, much to Lockwood’s annoyance. Bickerstaff’s coffin was raided and a strange glass object buried with the corpse has vanished. Inspector Barnes believes the relic to be highly dangerous, and he wants it found…”

 

The incomplete book of dragons; (a guide to dragon species)Image courtesy of Syndetics by Cressida Cowell

Long ago, the world was full of dragons. But what happened to them? Where are they now? These pages are taken from the notebooks of Viking Hero Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third when he was just a boy. A keen dragonwatcher, Hiccup paints a picture of the brilliance and fire and spirit of that lost dragon world. Featuring dragon profiles, dragon anatomy, dragon riding tips and lots more must know info e.g. how to spot the difference between an arsenic adderwing and a glow worm (you don’t want to mix those two up) and what to do when confronted with a Hellsteether.

 

Egg & Spoon Image courtesy of Syndeticsby Gregory Maguire

An impoverished Russian country girl Elena Rudina and the aristocratic Ekaterina meet and set in motion an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and the witch Baba Yaga.

 

 

 

Awful AuntieImage courtesy of Syndetics by David Walliams

Aunt Alberta is on a mission to cheat the young Lady Stella Saxby out of her inheritance – Saxby Hall. But with mischievous and irrepressible Soot, the cockney ghost of a chimney sweep, alongside her Stella is determined to fight back … And sometimes a special friend, however different, is all you need to win through

Russian Dragons

Russian dragons are hydras, which means that they have many heads. The number of heads they have is always in multiples of three, six, nine, or twelve. To kill a Russian dragon a slayer must cut off all of the dragon’s heads.

They have four legs with bird-like clawed feet, and bat-like wings. They breathe fire and have arrow-shaped tongues. They have horny, hooked noses with sharp beaks which they use to rip their prey apart!

They live in mountain caves and their favourite food is human flesh. Russian dragons are sneaky and deceitful, but not very smart despite having more than one brain!

If you enjoyed this post and want to read more, you can find out more about dragons in The Dragon Companion: An Encyclopedia by Carole Wilkinson. All the facts in this post were taken from this book.

Some new books about dragons that you might like to read are:

George and the Dragon: and a World of Other Stories by Geraldine McCaughrean

Day of the Dreader by Cressida Cowell

The Fire Ascending by Chris D’Lacey

Flying the Dragon by Natalie Dias Lorenzi

Beast Child by Ben Chandler

Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac

Dragon’s Revenge by Amy Tree

Flight to Dragon Isle by Lucinda Hare