A Heart’s Little Refugee by Eleni Ilia

Children’s texts inspired by the book A heart’s little refugee

The readers’ texts constitute creative imitation or modification or reversal of the literary model

1. The little garden girl goes to school. When she returns to her garden, Spring has suddenly come and flowers have sprouted. In the garden, when she played her favorite game with the sweet peas, the rainbow appears. She wishes every day the sky would be full of colors. She sits on the swing and picks the flowers with her feet. She makes rain of flowers. A flower falls on her and she is scared. (“The Garden of Memories“)
2. A girl passes with her parents in front of the little garden girl. They stop in the shop windows and look at things. They talk about Christmas holidays. The little garden girl dreams that they are playing with the other girl with water guns in an indoor hotel pool. Because it had showed a lot, they think they do not need any more toys. They make snowballs and throw them at each other. They also make snowmen instead of dolls. (“The Shopaholics“)
3. The little garden girl suggested to another girl to play together. But the other girl wouldn’t go, because she preferred to watch commercials. This girl had asked her parents to buy her windmills and dolls. She left them outside because the house was full of toys. Next day, as soon as she started playing, she gave up to watch the commercials in order to choose new toys. Every day she left the new toys, to watch the commercials. So, the little garden girl was alone in the garden. One time the garden girl fell off the swing. The other girl went to help her. Then both of them saw a pink flower. The girls loved this color very much. So, they take care of the flower, in order to grow and fill with pink blossoms. The two girls started playing together in the garden, to be near the flower. But whenever the weather was rainy and dark, they would watch commercials together inside the house. (“The Shopaholics“)
4. In the mornings the famous man took his dog for a walk. Whenever he passed by the garden, he would take the little girl by the hand and they would go buy milk. He was a singer and earned a lot of money. He told the little garden girl that he liked to fly kites and swim. But he couldn’t go to the beach because people would ask for autographs and bother him. So, he had built a swimming pool in his house. (“The Fame Addict“)
5. A singer destroyed his garden to build a swimming pool. So, he lived in the gray. There was no more sun and it was never Spring, only Autumn and Winter. At Christmas, Santa Claus didn’t come, nor did children sing carols. At pet shops, they wouldn’t let him get a dog or a cat, because there was no sun or space for the animals to play. He had no fans anymore. So, people didn’t invite him to give concerts. He grew a beard and got fat. He became a jobless bachelor, playing video games and watching TV, eating chips and ordering pizza with all the lights off and the curtains closed. (“The Fame Addict“)
6. In the illuminated shopping street there is a shop with computers, tablets and mobile phones. Two twin boys enter. They pass in front of the little girl without noticing her, because they both look at their screens. The little girl tells them: “Hello”. But they do not hear it. They are absorbed in the video games they play. When the two boys pass, the little girl dreams that she is playing with them. She holds in her hands a brand-new tablet. She is excited. When night falls, they put their tablets to charge and look at the sky together. They talk about the moon and the stars. Their parents are currently working in their restaurant. During the day they study new recipes on their own tablets. (“The Screenaholics“)
7. When the twin brothers moved to the new neighborhood, they played games on their mobile phones all the time. On a trip, they were constantly playing with a tablet. After they returned home, played video games on the computer. Then they turned on the TV but fell asleep from the screen. That’s how they were called “The Screen Brothers.” (“The Screenaholics“)
8. One day the two brothers took their video games and went to the garden. Because they were looking at the screens and not paying attention to where they were stepping, one of the boys slipped and fell. The tape came out and the screen went dark. As the boy was looking for the tape, his mother, who was on her way to work, passed by. She was also looking at her screen, so, she didn’t see him as he was bent over, and she tripped over him. When she realized it, she wrote “Sorry” on the screen. While the boy was looking for the tape, the little garden girl helped him. So, the boy fell in love with her. Stopped playing games on the screen and picked flowers for the little girl. The two children play together or go to the theater. (“The Screenaholics“)
9. When the phobics left the garden, they went to live in a city without gardens. But their neighbor had too many plants and even trees on the roof of their building. When the elderly couple went to talk to him about it, the neighbor explained to them that he just had to take care of his plants. Immediately an idea crossed the old man’s mind, to cut down all the plants. Then a butterfly landed on his hand. The old man started screaming but soon he realized that the butterfly had not harmed him. So, he and his wife returned to the countryside, where they lived without fear anymore. (“The Phobics”)
10. A beautiful, busy lady comes out of the flower shop, loaded with a hug of flowers and enters next to the crystal shop, which is hers. As she passes in front of the little girl, she smiles at her. How sweet is her smile! The little girl dreams that she lives near her. They have a huge garden, with many different flowers and they take care of them every afternoon, when the Little Girl returns from school and the woman returns from her shop. The lady promises the Little Girl that she will throw her a birthday party, where she will invite all her friends from school, to try her food and a huge cake. But even this beautiful dream ends for the Little Girl. (“The Workaholic“)
11. One day the busy lady had cooked chicken and potatoes for the little garden girl. That day when she arrived at work, she took out her keys and started trying them out. But she had too many keys and couldn’t find the right one. Time passed and she got tired of continuing. So, she returned home. She watered the flowers, took care of the frog and did many other chores, such as feeding the little girl. (“The Workaholic“)
12. The know-it-alls pruned the garden and threw the branches into their fireplace. Then the man left the garden. In the garden there was an apple tree. The woman asked the little garden girl to help her pick the apples. When the man returned, he found his wife giving the girl an injection because she had fallen ill when they were picking the apples. (“The know-it-alls“)
13. Three little sisters pass by on the street. They go to their dad’s shop, which sells sportswear and shoes. The little girl dreams that these girls are also her little sisters. They all live together in the same room. They have their breakfast and plan the games of the day. Because the weather is very cold, they decide not to go out for a game. They remember that the last time they played in the cold, they got sick. So, they suggest to play with their playdough. They will make ice cream, pizza and cookies from playdough. In the afternoon, they will drive to dad’s shop to help. They will take him whatever they make, to treat the children of the customers. (“The Tormentor“)
14. The Tormentor had a bull. Whenever he had time, he would take the bull into the forest to find other animals and fight them. When this man met the little garden girl instead of greeting her, he scared her. One day his bull entered the garden and hit the little garden girl. (“The Tormentor“)

Eleni Ilia

When the children’s imagination opens up roads for the little refugee to cross…

1. The little refugee girl dreams of making another garden that is much bigger than the old one. She wants to have a horse, a cow, butterflies, cats and a dog. The little refugee girl dreams of taking care of her animals with the Little Prince. She wishes the two of them live in a place where there are no other people and take walks together in the playground.
2. The little refugee girl dreams of making a little flower garden in the house of the Little Prince, so that the Little Princecan feel happy. The snow will fall all night but every morning when they wake up, the sun will have melted the snow.
3. The little refugee girl saw one night on her way a red dragon, whose mouth fire was coming out. The dragon set fire to a house that started burning. The family inside alerted the Fire Department, which arrived quickly. They managed to extinguish the fire before the whole house burned down. This dragon had wings. It started flying high and throwing stones at people’s houses. The little refugee saw the people doing chores to fix the dragon’s destruction and went into the housed and helped. In one house she told the little child and his parents: “Your house looks nice”. And then they told her that she could stay with them. When the sun came up, the police chased the dragon but it escaped. The little refugee remembered a friend of hers, who knew a lot about dragons. She had learned from him that when a dragon rules the city, it is because it wants to eat. She told the family and mum made soup for the dragon. Since then, every time the dragon was hungry, it went and ate in the house where the little refugee girl lived. So, it did not hurt people again.
4. The little refugee girl had seen a house that had the shape of a rose. The carpenters had made it this way for a girl who liked flowers. The house smelled like a rose because the girl who lived there sprayed it with her own rose perfume. When the little refugee girl walked outside, she saw that the door was open and entered. The girl who owned this home, whenever she was away, left the door open for anyone who likes flowers to enter. When the little refugee girl came in, she saw that flowers were painted on the walls. The little refugee girl lay on the bed to rest. Then, she ate two yoghurts she found in the fridge and a whole pineapple she saw on the table, and continued the journey.
5. The little refugee girl along with other refugees arrive in a forest to relax and cut fruit. There, they saw an amazing house. They made a wish for the door to open and it opened immediately. They realized that the house was magical. They saw a fountain in the garden changing colors and found paintings for the children to paint there. They wished to stay in this house and have lots of books and toys, and that wish came true. The last wish made by the little refugee girl was for all the children to have many pairs of shoes, one for winter, another for spring, another for summer and another for autumn.
6. The little refugee girl likes her new homeland, which is England. Her cousin has also gone there and they are hanging out. She has dolls that talk, they say what the little refugee girl tells them. In England, the little refugee girl finds telescopes to look at the planets. She also buys antiques to decorate her house. She cannot find one pink and white flower, though, which they had in their homeland. Whenever the little refugee girl remembers her mother, she cries. But because she arranges to go out, she quickly stops crying to get ready.
7. The little refugee girl is in Greece. She goes to a shop that has a beautiful doll and they play “family” with a little boy. They have the doll for their baby. The little refugee girl has lost her family when her house was destroyed. On the day the little refugee girl has her birthday, the boy who plays together in the shop takes money from his dad and gives the little refugee girl the doll as a gift. Whenever the little refugee girl remembers her old life, she feels sad. She then thinks of her friend and feels happy.
8. The little refugee girl is happy because she can play with the flowers “they love me – they don’t love me” and then throw the flowers high to fall on her. She looks out of the window at the children in the square and greets them. So, she has made five friends. She plays with them when she finds their games easy. In difficult games, such as “play tag”, she does not play because she is afraid of being hit. An easy game is when they play “family” or when they play the Sun, the Earth, and other planets. The little refugee girl is wearing embroidered clothes with threads that have the colors of earth. So, the other kids always ask the little refugee girl to play the role of the Earth.
9. The little refugee girl came to stay in a castle near our school. This castle was built by the builders for a man to give to his wife who had her birthday, because the castle they lived in before was old. Just because the girl’s garden in her own home withered, this man and his wife regretted her crying and told her if she wanted to stay with them. The new castle has a garden with poppies, an apple tree, ladybugs and snails, which the little girl really likes. But also inside the castle they have vases with the most beautiful pink roses, with raindrops. The woman buys new roses every Wednesday at the street market. A pilot brought Little Prince to the castle. Now, the two children are playing together in the castle garden with balls and other exercise equipment and when they grow up they will come to our school too.
10. The little refugee girl met a boy from our class at a children’s hospital. The boy did stunts in the street and fell and broke his leg. At the hospital, they placed a splint around his leg and put him in a wheelchair. Then, the little girl thought of helping him. She pushed his wheelchair to her house to stay close to him until he was well again. Then, she bought seeds. She planted them in the soil and watered them together with the boy. So, they sprouted slowly and a garden was made. The boy said, “This garden is perfect”. They will stay here together for a long time. But when the sun stops burning so much, the refugee girl will return to her place to find her things which she has left there.
11. I found a pirate telescope on the beach. The pirate had let it down to build a tower in the sand. When he left the beach, he forgot to take his telescope with him. I look at the moon through this telescope. I play with it “statues immovable, day or night”. Then, I see a little girl coming towards me. She is alone. I start singing and dancing mambo and the little girl dances with me. We dance a lot of songs all night. In the morning, we lie down on the sand. We sleep all day because we are very tired. In the evening, we start dancing again. We stay there for four days. We eat the fruit I have with me. When we eat them all, we go to the street market. We buy fruit and toys from there to go back to the beach and continue to dance. Passing by the house where I live, I call my parents and tell them: “Mom, dad, let me show you a new friend of mine”. They say “wow” and I leave with the little refugee girl for the beach again.
12. I met the little refugee girl in a shop where they sell shoes. I had gone to this store with my mom and brother. My brother had chosen shoes and we were waiting at the checkout. Then, the little girl came to buy shoes. She says to me: “You are very beautiful. Do you want to be friends?” I said “yes”. My uncle was waiting in the car outside the store. My mom and brother left with him and I stayed to leave with my new friend. The little girl chose the pink shoes with butterflies on them. Then, we walked to my house. We played with my toys and drank orange and strawberry juice, which my mother had prepared. We slept together and the next day the little refugee girl left for her hotel. She invited me to visit her. I went there by bus. We played with her toys and took walks in the garden. Every Thursday or Friday that I don’t have ballet lessons, I’ll go to the hotel and play with her.
13. I met the little refugee girl in the meadow when I went to pick flowers. I pick flowers to decorate the vases at my mom’s restaurant. The restaurant is called “Love” and is next to this meadow. The little refugee girl comes to the restaurant to eat her favorite food, cooked meat and fries. When we found ourselves in the meadow, she told me “I took a walk here, to get some air”. She was anxious what time it was. She wanted to take the plane. She’ll go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower.
14. The little refugee girl comes to my house every day to play. She doesn’t know anyone else here, only me. First, the little girl and I play with my dolls. Her favorite doll is Super Diva and my favorite doll is Barbie.  Then, we draw and play hide and seek together in my yard. When night falls, the little refugee girl goes to be. I have never been where she lives because she likes playing in my house.

Eleni Ilia