Publishing Community Worldwide continues to share support for Ukraine

on Apr 27, 2022

In the time since Russia invaded Ukraine, the international publishing community has united and come forward with a number of initiatives aimed at offering support to children’s authors, publishers, and aid organizations.

Just over two months since Russian forces invaded their country, more than five million Ukrainians have fled their homeland, according to UN reports. Around one-half of those are estimated to be children. While refugee families have spread out around the world, more than half are currently displaced in Poland. Almost immediately after the war broke out, the Polish literacy foundation Fundacja Powszechnego Czytania (Universal Reading Foundation) sprang into action to provide support for refugee children and Ukrainian publishers.

Polish printers including Totem donated their services to print and distribute the books; publishers offered warehouse space and transportation. All of these services have been donations in kind. Nearly two months into the effort, the foundation has either received or been promised 88,000 books and close to 28,000 books are currently in the process of being printed. Now using the hashtag #BooksGiveRefuge for recognition, the foundation’s initiative is distributing books through Polish orphanages, daycare centers, kindergartens, schools, libraries, and train stations where Ukrainian families are arriving, and, in some cases, sheltering for the short term.

In Brooklyn, indie Books Are Magic offered Draw for Ukraine on April 23, an interactive event aimed at involving kids, families, and illustrators in raising money for UNICEF Ukraine and the NYC-based organization Razom for Ukraine. Created in partnership with Private Picassos—an arts education organization headed by Ukrainian American artist and educator Valeen Bhat—the event included a raffle for drawings donated by children’s book illustrators including Brian Floca, Melissa Iwai, Nora Krug, Julie Kwon, and Mika Song. During the event, illustrators worked alongside children to create drawings and messages of hope for refugee children.

In the U.K., children’s publishers Gracie Cooper of Little Toller and Kevin Duffy of Bluemoose raised more than £75,000 to support their Packed with Hope initiative, which began delivering 10,000 backpacks to Ukrainian refugee children last week. Stuffed with scarves, hats, and water bottles in addition to activity and picture books, the backpacks are being distributed at sites along the Ukraine-Romanian border by the publishers and volunteers. Included in the backpacks are more than 40,000 books donated by U.K. publishers and printed by U.S. publishers. Waterstones recently announced its Read for Ukraine initiative—aimed at raising £1 million for Oxfam’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, but the current initiative centers on adult books.

With the support of the Federation of European Publishers and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Ukrainian Book Institute launched a crowdfunding campaign that has raised more than $32,000 in the past few weeks. The first 6,000 books funded by the campaign have gone to press.

Bookstores—both independents and chains—have introduced fundraising efforts to support a variety of charities benefiting kids both inside and outside Ukraine.