Lost Words: An Armenian Story of Survival and Hope

Reviewed by David Austin

December 1, 2024

By Leila Boukarim, illustrated by Sona Avedikian. Chronicle Books, 2024. 44 pages. $18.99/hardcover; $11.99/eBook. Recommended for ages 5–8.

Before Myanmar, before the Yazidis in Iraq, before Darfur, before Bosnia, before the Anfal campaign, before Cambodia, before East Timor, before Guatemala, before the Holocaust, and before the Holodomor, there was the Armenian Genocide, which began during the First World War in what was Western Armenia. Approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire, led by the Turks. The genocidal campaign—now regarded as the first genocide of the twentieth century—started with the rounding up of members of the educated class and the forced separation of families, and it later led to mass executions, forced marches, and organized persecution, which led thousands to flee the region. This campaign of terror did not end until 1923.

Yet few have heard of this history before. Based on a true family story, Lost Words: An Armenian Story of Survival and Hope helps fill the gap in education about these events. This beautifully illustrated book begins like so many other stories that make up the histories that I listed above: with a family living life, during just a routine day, and then comes the knock at the door: “I didn’t see it coming . . .” Only minutes to grab a few things. Promises that the adults will follow the children. No time to say goodbyes: those words lost forever.

Then comes our nameless narrator’s journey, in this case through dust and heat, across a desert; then to a safe place to rest and wait, and wait; longing to return home; and missing those left behind and all those things that were never said. “I was safe here, but this life felt like a shirt that no longer fit.”

Time passes. Our narrator grows up, finds a new home, and starts a new family. Eventually, his children begin to ask questions: where do I come from? And the memories return, all those stories untold. Still, he remains quiet. “I had lost my words.”

He finds them again: “dusty from years of sitting in the dark, unspoken.” And he shares all that was lost about Armenia.

The book features notes from both the author and the illustrator, each telling of their own family’s experience of the Armenian Genocide. There is a brief history of that period, and a bibliography for adults is also included. (I highly recommend Black Dog of Fate, a memoir by poet Peter Balakian about uncovering his own Armenian past.)

Lost Words could be the story of so many: from so many times and places, from so many genocides and similar terrors, of so many journeys of families like mine and likely yours: fleeing religious persecution in England, fleeing the Clearances, or fleeing the Great Hunger. That commonality is what makes this beautiful, little gem of a book so powerful and so useful. This could be your family’s story.

David Austin is a member of Medford (N.J.) Meeting and lives in Marlton, N.J. He is a retired history teacher and Holocaust educator. His middle-grade novel in verse recounting the true story of Holocaust survivor Charles Middleberg is titled Small Miracle and is available from Fernwood Press.