The Yellow Hats

A book about courage and resistance, about friendship that overcomes boundaries, about gratefulness and remembrance. This is a story about those who listen to their inner voice, their heart, when faced with fear and find the strength to stand up against terrible things. But it is also about those who endanger their own lives in order to defend the right to live.

…The Yellow Hats is the first illustrated children’s book in Greek that alludes to the Holocaust in order to talk about solidarity, vigilance and the concept of active, global citizenship. In a book relevant for readers of all ages, the author has managed to transform the living memory of the trauma from a family history with limited recipients, into a genuinly universal, timeless experience that speaks not only of persecution, injustice, war, but also of humanity, greatness of soul and the need for resistance. The book’s reference to the Holocaust is only through illustrations and is limited to a single element, emphasized in the book’s title: The Yellow Hats. In any case, it is the yellow hats that mark the key points of the story: seclusion, persecution, salvation...

Angela Yannicopoulou Professor of Children’s Literature UOA – Literary journal O Anagnostis

...Kelly Covo achieves something extremely important. She provides us tools for talking to young children about the Holocaust without making any direct reference to harsh historical events. Through a tenderly illustrated allegory with animals, young readers can keep a safe emotional distance from reality.

Pelio Papadia – Talc Mag

The word “I remember”, with which the author begins the story, is declarative. In the black and white illustrations colored details occasionally emphasize specific points. On the cover of the book, the emphasis is placed on the light and the savior-animals, who by defying all dangers, set sail with a boat named Magdalene. Without them the Woolly family would probably not have been rescued. In this indirect way, self-sacrifice, humanity, courage, and friendship are projected. The absence of the sheep with the yellow hats is resounding.

The image of the sheep with the yellow hats behind the barbed wire looking directly at the reader is a silent “demand” for justice. The course of the sheep in the direction of the blue sky is extremely moving. In the next scene only the yellow hats are left behind. This is the beginning of a new life, in a different place. And then, the return route to the green meadow completes the circular course with its happy and redeeming ending.

Mary Birbili – Elniplex