Every Sunday, a little girl comes back with something to tell her father. A bear she met, tea shared somewhere far away, fruit gathered with fairies. Her father listens quietly as these small worlds begin to fill the room. Outside, winter settles in. Inside, she keeps talking, inventing, bringing him with her, one story at a time.
A rare story of loss
Grief and absence are rarely at the heart of picture books in this way. Here they are felt through a father and daughter, with tenderness, restraint and the quiet presence of everyday life.
The force of imagination
The little girl does not explain what is happening around her. She invents. Her stories, games and adventures become her way of reaching her father and bringing life back into their shared world.
A poetic world of its own
Nature, animals and small touches of the fantastic shape a gentle, dreamlike world. It carries the distinctive sensitivity of Haya Halaw, where the ordinary and the imaginary seem to exist side by side.
Haya Halaw
Syrian Author-illustrator, based in Germany
Haya Halaw is an award-winning Syrian illustrator and painter based in Hamburg, Germany. Her practice spans children’s books, editorial illustration, comics and painting, often exploring displacement, memory, belonging and intimate human experiences.
She has collaborated with publishers and cultural institutions across the Arab region and internationally. Alongside her illustration work, she develops a painting practice around home, identity and transformation, including her first solo exhibition, Of Home and Land, held in Amman in 2022.
She developed her first authored and illustrated picture book within the Illustrated Arab programme.
