Chaucer’s Bookstore will host Santa Barbara author Mona Damluji for a kid’s storytime reading of her book “I Want You to Know,” 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24 at Chaucer’s, 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.

How do we speak with our children about wars that have separated us from the places generations of our ancestors once called home?

How can we explain how those wars continue to reverberate in our lives, many years, decades or even generations after the combat has ended?

“I Want You to Know” is a poem of possibility, of legacy and of hope that begins a conversation with young readers about our complex and deeply personal relationships to war, migration, identity and family history. 

Damluji originally wrote a version of the poem for her daughter on the morning of the 20-year anniversary of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a place where generations of Damluji’s family had lived, loved, and cared for one another until it was no longer safe to stay.

Her daughters have heard many family stories about life in Iraq, but there have also been many silences.

“I Want You to Know” pairs Damluji’s poetry with illustrations by Ishtar Dakhil Bäcklund to help fill that void.

Damluji is a professor of film and media studies at UCSB. “I Want You to Know” is her second picture book. Her first book is “Together” (2021), a poem celebrating the power of collective action.