Children’s book as protection: why Ukraine and Israel talk about resilience at the ‘Book Arsenal’

In Kyiv, at the XIV International Festival “Book Arsenal 2026,” a discussion “The Book as a Tool of Resilience: Shared Experience of Israel and Ukraine” took place. At first glance, this event could be attributed to the usual cultural program of a book festival. But in reality, it was about a much deeper topic — how a book helps children, parents, and society endure war, anxiety, loss, and prolonged uncertainty.

The discussion took place on May 31, 2026, at the Publishing Stage. The organizer was the publishing house “Mamino“. According to the official festival program, participants included Tetiana Honchenko, Mila Tsur, and Svitlana Tyapina, with Zoryana Bindas listed as the moderator.

In the announcement by the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine, the event was presented as a conversation about the power of children’s literature, psychological resilience, and the Israeli experience of supporting families during a crisis. This emphasis makes the topic important not only for the Ukrainian cultural environment but also for the Israeli audience.

Ukraine and Israel live in different historical, military, and political circumstances. But these two societies have a painful point of contact: children grow up near war, anxiety, sirens, adult conversations about safety, and a constant feeling that the world can change overnight.

The book as a language for talking to a child about war

In peacetime, a children’s book is often perceived as part of upbringing, leisure, or a family ritual. It is read before bedtime, given as a gift on holidays, used in school and at home.

During war, the meaning changes.

The book becomes a safe language through which adults can talk to a child about what is difficult to explain directly. About fear. About moving. About losing a home. About a bomb shelter. About separation from loved ones. About why mom or dad is silent longer than usual, why the siren sounds, why you can’t go outside, why you need to wait.

For Ukraine, this topic became part of everyday life after Russia’s full-scale invasion. Millions of families experienced evacuation, separation, shelling, loss of loved ones, living in foreign cities and countries. Children hear conversations about the front, see the fatigue of adults, get used to anxieties and restrictions that should not have become part of childhood.

For Israel, this conversation is also not abstract. After October 7 and amid the ongoing war, Israeli families again faced questions that cannot be postponed: how to explain danger to a child, how to talk about the kidnapped, the dead, the rocket alerts, the fear of tomorrow.

That is why the topic of the discussion at the “Book Arsenal” goes beyond literature. It concerns how society keeps a child within a traumatic reality — not hiding the truth, but also not destroying their inner support.

Why the Israeli experience is important for Ukraine

The Israeli experience of supporting families in crisis conditions is important for Ukraine not because it can be mechanically transferred. Israel has its own history, its own security system, its own social institutions, and its own experience of living under threat.

But in Israeli society, there has long been an understanding: resilience does not appear by itself. It needs to be created — through family, school, psychological help, culture, community ties, state and public initiatives.

Children’s literature occupies a special place in this row. It does not replace a psychologist and does not solve political problems. But it helps a child name the feeling they are afraid of. Helps parents start a conversation. Helps a teacher explain a complex topic not through a dry lecture, but through a plot, an image, a hero, a situation in which the child recognizes themselves.

For the Ukrainian audience, the Israeli experience can be useful precisely as an example of long-term work with a society living under pressure. For the Israeli audience, the Ukrainian experience shows something else: how culture, language, and books become part of resistance when a country defends not only territory but also the right of children to grow up in their own identity.

NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers such events not just as cultural chronicles. This is part of a broader connection between Ukrainian and Israeli societies — where diplomacy turns into an exchange of practical experience, and a conversation about books becomes a conversation about families, trauma, memory, and the future.

The participation of the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine in this topic looks especially indicative. Diplomacy here is manifested not through loud statements, but through a quieter, but important form of presence: support for humanitarian and educational dialogue.

In wartime conditions, such formats sometimes mean more than official formulas. They show that there is space between countries for exchanging not only military or political experience but also the experience of restoring human resilience.

“Book Arsenal 2026”: freedom, trauma, and resilience

The XIV “Book Arsenal” took place in Kyiv from May 28 to 31, 2026. Its focus theme — “Carrying Your Freedom” — explains well why the discussion about children’s books and resilience took place on this platform.

Freedom during war ceases to be an abstract word. It becomes a matter of daily choice: to speak your language, to read your children your books, to preserve culture, not to give up memory, not to let fear completely define life.

For Ukraine, the book festival in Kyiv during the war is not only a cultural event. It is a demonstration that society continues to think, argue, read, publish, translate, create new meanings, and talk about the future.

For Israel, this signal is also understandable. Israeli history is built on the idea that culture, language, education, and memory are part of national security. Not instead of the army and not instead of diplomacy, but alongside them.

When the Israeli experience of supporting families is discussed on the Ukrainian book platform, it speaks of a new level of dialogue. Ukraine is looking for tools not only for survival but also for internal recovery. Israel, with its own difficult experience of living with a threat, becomes one of the interlocutors in this process.

Why this is important for parents

The main practical meaning of this topic is not in the names of events and not in the list of participants. It is that parents in Ukraine and Israel often remain alone with children’s questions that cannot be answered simply.

Why did the war start?

Why do we have to go to the shelter?

Why do adults cry?

Why didn’t someone come home?

Why can’t we live like before?

The book does not give a universal answer. But it creates a space where a child can hear not only an explanation but also an intonation of safety. An adult is nearby. The story has a beginning and an end. The hero goes through fear. The world is not perfect, but there remains help, love, friendship, memory, and hope.

That is why children’s literature becomes a tool of resilience. Not a slogan, not a therapeutic instruction, but a gentle form of conversation.

Cultural connection that is stronger than protocol

In the relations between Ukraine and Israel, politics, security, diplomatic signals, military assistance, historical memory, and positions on international issues are often discussed. All this is important.

But there is another layer of relations — human.

It manifests in events like the discussion at the “Book Arsenal.” There is no loud geopolitics here, but there is a direct question: how to help a child continue living in a world where adults themselves do not always know what will happen tomorrow.

For the Israeli audience, this Ukrainian conversation is especially understandable. In Israel, the topic of children’s resilience, family anxiety, and returning to normal life after trauma has become part of the public agenda. Ukraine today is going through a similar path, although in a different form and on a different scale.

Therefore, the event in Kyiv should be read not as a small episode of the festival program, but as a sign: the Ukrainian-Israeli dialogue is gradually going beyond official statements and moving into the sphere of experience needed by living people.

In this context, the children’s book becomes not an ornament of culture, but a tool for the survival of society.

It helps to speak where ordinary words are too heavy. Helps maintain the connection between generations. Helps a child feel that even in the reality of war, they are not alone.

And perhaps it is from such quiet conversations that true resilience begins — not ostentatious, not slogan-driven, but family, human, and long-term.