A Heart’s Little Refugee by Eleni Ilia
A Heart’s Little Refugee by Eleni Ilia
A book to be read, shared, and explored—both in the heart and in the classroom.
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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 plays her
favorite game with the sweet peas, the rainbow appears. She wishes the sky
would be full of color every day. 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 and her parents pass by the little garden girl. They stop in front of the shop
windows and look at things. They talk about the Christmas holidays. The little
garden girl dreams that she is playing with the other girl with water guns in an
indoor hotel pool. Because it had snowed a lot, they decide 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 asked another girl to go out and play with her. 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 went back
in to watch the commercials in order to choose new toys. Every day, she ignored
the new toys in order 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 took care of the flower to help it 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 an unemployed 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 by the little girl without noticing
her because they are both looking at their screens. The little girl says, “Hello,” but
they do not hear it. They are absorbed in the video games they are playing.
When the two boys pass, the little girl dreams that she is playing with them. She
holds a brand-new tablet in her hands. She is excited. When night falls, they plug
in 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 search for 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. During a trip, they were constantly playing
games on their tablet. After they returned home, they played video games on the
computer. Then they turned on the TV but fell asleep in front of the screen.
That’s what they were called, “The Screen Brothers.” (“The Screenaholics”)
8. One day the two brothers took their video games and went into 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. He 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 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 an armful of
flowers and enters the crystal shop next door, which is hers. As she passes by
the little girl, she smiles at her. How sweet her smile is! 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
and serve food and a huge cake. But even this beautiful dream ends for the little
girl. (“The Workaholic”)
11. One day, the busy lady 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 are going 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 to play. They remember that the last time they played in the
cold, they got sick. So, they suggested playing 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 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
dreams of taking care of her animals with the Little Prince. She wishes the two of
them lived in a place where there were no other people and where they could take
walks together in the playground.
2. The little refugee dreams of making a little flower garden in the house of the Little
Prince so that the Little Prince can feel happy. The snow will fall all night but every
morning when they wake up, the sun will have melted the snow.
3. One night, while on her way, the little refugee saw a red dragon with fire coming out
of its mouth. The dragon set fire to a house. 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 houses 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 a city, it is
because it wants to eat. She told the family and the mother made soup for the
dragon. Since then, every time the dragon was hungry, it went and ate in the house
where the little refugee lived. So, it did not hurt people again.
4. The little girl saw a house that was in the shape of a rose. The carpenters had made
it this way for a girl who liked flowers. The house smelled like roses because the girl
who lived there sprayed it with her own rose perfume. When the little refugee was
walking by the house, she saw that the door was open and entered. Whenever the
girl who owned this home was away, she left the door open for anyone who liked
flowers to enter. When the little refugee went in, she saw that there were flowers
painted on the walls. The little refugee 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, along with other little refugees, arrives in a forest to relax and cut
fruit. There, they see an amazing house. They make a wish for the door to open and
it opens immediately. They realize that the house is magical. They see a fountain in
the garden changing colors and find paintings for the children to paint. They wish
they could stay in this house and have lots of books and toys, and their wish comes
true! The last wish made by the little refugee 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 likes her new homeland, which is England. Her cousin has also
gone there and they spend time together. She has dolls that talk; they say what the
little refugee wants them to. In England, the little refugee finds telescopes to look at
the planets. She also buys antiques to decorate her house. She cannot find one pink and white flower, which she had in her homeland. Whenever the little refugee
remembers her mother, she cries. But because she arranges to go out, she quickly
stops crying to get ready.
7. The little refugee 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
lost her family when her house was destroyed. On the day the little refugee has her
birthday, the boy she plays with in the shop gets some money from his dad and gives
the little refugee the doll as a gift. Whenever the little refugee remembers her old
life, she feels sad. She then thinks of her friend and feels happy.
8. The little refugee is happy because she can play “He loves me, he loves me not”
about her old garden with the flowers and then throw the flowers high in the air and
feel them fall on her. She looks out of the window at the children in the square and
greets them. She has made five friends. She plays with them when she finds their
games easy. In difficult games, such as “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 wears clothes embroidered with
threads the colors of the earth, so the other kids always ask the little refugee to play
the role of Earth.
9. The little refugee girl came to stay in a castle near our school. This castle was built
for a man who wanted to give it to his wife as a present for her birthday, because
the castle they lived in was old. Because the girl’s garden in her own home had
withered, she was crying and this man and his wife felt sorry for her and invited her
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 laid it down to build a
sandcastle. When he left the beach, he forgot to take his telescope with him. I look
at the moon through this telescope. I play “Freeze” with it day and night. Then, I see
a little girl coming towards me. She is alone. I start singing and dancing the mambo
and the little girl dances with me. We dance to many 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 introduce you to 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 about the time. She
wanted to take the plane. She’s going 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 bed. I have
never been to where she lives because she likes playing in my house.
Eleni Ilia
