When We Had to Leave Home

Displaced by conflict in Ukraine, a young girl and her family must start again in a new country.

When war comes to Sofiya's country, she and her mother and grandmother are forced to set off on a long journey to escape the violence and find safety. Sofiya doesn’t know whether she will ever see her friends or her beloved garden again, so she takes a sunflower with her as a reminder of all that she is leaving behind. But this homegrown keepsake has a surprise in store―one that will help Sofiya put down her own roots and feel at home in a new place.

Linda Ravin Lodding is the award-winning author of eight children's picture books. She graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University and has an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. Originally from New York, Linda spent the twenty-five years in Austria and the Netherlands and now lives in beautiful Stockholm, Sweden.

Anna Aronson lives in Winneconne, Wisconsin. She has a degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and has worked on board games, coloring books, and children's books, including The Grumpy Troll.