Uticha Marmon’s story is about the siblings Hannes and Tammi and Salim from Syria, who gradually get to know each other and eventually become friends.
The story is exciting and sensitively told and offers good starting points for discussing topics such as flight and asylum with children aged 8 and older.
“Although Hannes and his sister Tammi aren’t always of one heart and soul, the siblings stick together when it counts. For example, when a ghost train is to be built for the school festival. Or when the baby bird suddenly appears in their lives and throws everything into turmoil. His name is Salim and he doesn’t speak a single word of German. But Hannes and Tammi don’t care, because for them it’s clear: friends don’t have to speak the same language to understand each other. Gradually, the two learn why Salim is always all alone at the school fence. Sometimes hiding in closets. And why he is so terribly afraid. Salim is a refugee from Syria. On the long road to Europe, he lost the most important thing of all: his family.”
Uticha Marmon 2015: My Friend Salim. Bamberg: Magellan.
If you don’t have a bookstore worth supporting near you, you can also buy the book from the alternative non-profit online bookstore links-lesen.de, which supports political projects with the profits. The link to the book is: http: //www.links-lesen.de/article/978-3-7348-4010-4