CANR
WORK TITLE: ALONE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.paultom.ca/
CITY: Montreal
STATE:
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Thailand; immigrated to Canada.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Documentary filmmaker. NFB Media School, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, instructor. Has also worked as a film editor, director, and writer.
AWARDS:Recipient of two Gémeaux awards, for contributions to Canadian television and digital media broadcast in French.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Paul Tom is a Cambodian who was born in a Thai refugee camp. He eventually settled in Montreal, where he became a documentary filmmaker. Using his own experience as a refugee, he documented challenges faced by other refugees in the film Seuls. He is the recipient of two Gémeaux awards for his contributions to Canadian television and digital media broadcast in French.
Tom published Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees with illustrations by Mélanie Baillairgé. Translated into English by Arielle Aaronson and geared toward younger readers, the text is an adaptation of the documentary film, Seuls. In it, Tom follows the lives of three teenagers who are seeking asylum or refugee status in Canada. Thirteen-year-old Afshin is scared for his life as war and conflict alters Iranian society. His parents send him overseas for his safety. While he is initially excited by the move, he does not learn what he is giving up until much later. Thirteen-year-old Alain is the son of a Burundian political prisoner. Persecuted by association, he and his mother and brothers flee to nearby Kenya. Their status is thrown into question after a tragedy and administrative delays complicate their situation. Sixteen-year-old Patricia identifies as queer. Her existence based on her sexuality has been made illegal, meaning she and her family face prison time and far worse if the authorities find out. By leaving the country, though, she understands that she may not see her mother for a very long time. Themes of hope and a sense of leaving the known world behind intermingle to create tension for each of Tom’s subjects.
In an interview in Quill & Quire, Tom discussed how he touched on the sensitivities of the issues dealt with by Afshin, Alain, and Patricia in the book. He admitted that he used “human experiences that kids can convey through emotions: joy and laughter, fulfillment, security, pain, sadness, abandonment, hope, rebuilding,” adding: “I tried to stick as close as possible to the emotions I myself felt when I was suffering, overjoyed, or confident during my own childhood. I believe my sensitivity translates into something real that kids can understand.”
Writing in the Montreal Review of Books, Meaghan Thurston observed: “To promote empathy, the reader is inserted as the main character at the outset of each chapter.” Thurston noticed that this device was used “sparingly, but effectively.” Thurston called the text “blunt, heartbreaking, and hopeful.” Booklist contributor Kay Weisman insisted that “this will serve to humanize the circumstances of those seeking safe haven.” A Publishers Weekly contributor mentioned that “tight first-person narration alternates between the book’s subjects.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2023, Kay Weisman, review of Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees, p. 45.
Publishers Weekly, April 17, 2023, review of Alone, p. 71.
ONLINE
Montreal Review of Books, https://mtlreviewofbooks.ca/ (March 16, 2023), Meaghan Thurston, review of Alone.
Paul Tom website, https://www.paultom.ca (August 6, 2023).
Quill & Quire, https://quillandquire.com/ (August 6, 2023), author interview.
in French
PAUL TOM was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, the son of Cambodian parents. He currently lives in Montreal where he uses his talent and sensitivity for projects that give a voice to those people we don’t hear enough about. Whether working as a film editor, director or author, he tells stories in such a way as to shed light on the intimate, precious and fragile aspects of human beings. Alone is his first book.
PAUL TOM & MÉLANIE BAILLAIRGÉ
« BACK TO
AUTHOR PROFILES
For Paul Tom, Alone: The Journey of Three Young Refugees touches on universal truths
This May, Montreal-based filmmaker, animator, and digital storytelling instructor Paul Tom releases his first book, Alone: The Journey of Three Young Refugees (Groundwood Books), published in French as Seuls by La Courte Echelle. Adapted from the 2021 film of the same name, and illustrated by Mélanie Baillairgé (with translation by Arielle Aaronson), the graphic novel for ages 8–12 chronicles the journey of Afshin, Alain, and Patricia as they make their way to Canada by themselves.
Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Tom is the winner of two Gémeaux awards, which honour achievements in Canadian television and digital media broadcast in French, for his 2017 documentary film Baggage.
Tom spoke to Q&Q about how Alone came to be, what the experience meant to him, and what he hopes readers will take away from the graphic novel.
This is your first book for young readers. Why did you feel this was the right time to speak directly to the younger generation?
Alone is actually my first book, ever. I didn’t plan to aim it at young readers in particular. In fact, I didn’t expect to write the book at all. When the film – from which it was adapted – was released, my role as director was already done. However, Mélanie Baillairgé, who illustrated the film’s animation sequences, found a way to bring our work to the page – to my biggest surprise and delight!
For the past 10 years, I’ve been in contact with the younger generation through my filmmaking work in classes for immigrants and my work as a digital story instructor with the NFB Media School, among other things. These experiences have convinced me that young hearts are fertile ground to plant seeds of openness and curiosity. And those hearts are more easily drawn to the sensory memories of childhood, which I use a lot to make connections with the protagonists of my book and film.
Alone touches on a number of heavy issues. How did you navigate the sensitivities of these issues for a younger audience?
I use human experiences that kids can convey through emotions: joy and laughter, fulfillment, security, pain, sadness, abandonment, hope, rebuilding.
There are facts and actions. There are emotions tied to that.
I tried to stick as close as possible to the emotions I myself felt when I was suffering, overjoyed, or confident during my own childhood. I believe my sensitivity translates into something real that kids can understand.
Illustration: Mélanie Baillairgé
The main characters of Alone – Afshin, Alain, and Patricia – are real people. How did you come to learn of their stories?
I always joke that it took me only two weeks to write the book because it came after almost four years of work and a great team dedicated to the documentary.
At the head of the team: Julie Boisvert and Mylène Péthel. These two worked wonders to find and research the three characters. They discovered Afshin from his book (Passeport pour ailleurs) – an amazing journey narrated like a spy novel. Then they met Alain because a member of Julie’s family heard about unaccompanied minors being housed in a Burundian association in Ottawa. Patricia was referred to us by (Quebec agency) PRAIDA (Regional Program for the Settlement and Integration of Asylum Seekers).
What did it mean for you to bring their story to the page?
This process comes full circle for me.
When I started my film studies, I wanted to make gigantic rom-coms with people kissing in the rain. Instead, my teachers encouraged me to look into my own experience as a son of refugees. Maybe stories I could find in my own baggage had the potential to bring something new to the audience. And if they didn’t, the process might at least be therapeutic.
I made films about my family and myself and then realized that pointing to the intimate has the power to touch the universal.
Since then, I’ve wanted to shed a light on people who don’t have a platform for their own stories and bring a new perspective to abstract topics such as immigration and displacement.
What do you hope young readers take away from Alone?
Over the past few years, I have done many school presentations and received these kinds of unexpected testimonies from the students:
“I will never judge a person based on his appearance. Not now, not ever.”
“I think I have a glimpse of what empathy is.”
“I will thank my parents. I know how lucky I am to be here and not there.”
The stories of Patricia, Alain, and Afshin are not only refugee stories. They are stories of human beings. I want young readers to understand that people who come from elsewhere all want the same thing: to live in peace, to have shelter over their heads, and shelter over their hearts. To dream without limits.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Paul Tom (Credit: Chantale Lecours) and Mélanie Baillairgé (Credit: Chantale Lecours).
Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees
Paul Tom, trans, from the French by Arielle Aaronson, illus. by Melanie Baillairge.
Groundwood, $21.99 (144p) ISBN 978-1-7730-6927-2
Adapting documentary film Seuls into an engrossing book for young readers, debut author Tom--who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand--follows three unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Canada after fleeing their respective homelands. In each chapter, tight first-person narration alternates between the book's subjects, following second-person lines directed at readers ("Imagine that you're going away"). In Tehran, the parents of 13-year-old Afshin fear he'll be killed in the Iranian wars; when they send him away to keep him alive, he looks forward to the journey without realizing its long-term implications. In Burundi, 13-year-old Alain, the son of a political prisoner, escapes with his mother and brothers to Kenya, where a two-year delay and a tragic event leave the boys in limbo. For Patricia, a queer 16-year-old in Uganda, "if other people find out... it means prison and persecution for our family and even worse," but leaving means losing "the enveloping weight" of her mother's love. Baillairge's digital illustrations employ a limited palette that reflects the flags of Burundi, Kenya, and Iran, and a stylized, minimalist approach hones three complex story lines down to a sharply rendered tale whose chapters trace experiences of "Leaving Everything Behind" through the subjects' developing "Hope for Tomorrow." A glossary concludes. Ages 8-12. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees." Publishers Weekly, vol. 270, no. 16, 17 Apr. 2023, p. 71. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A748227709/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1adab4af. Accessed 17 July 2023.
Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees. By Paul Tom. Illus. by Melanie Baillairge. Tr. by Arielle Aaronson. May 2023. 144p. Groundwood, $21.99 (9781773069272). Gr. 4-8.305.23086.
The author, who was born in a Thai refugee camp to Cambodian parents, recounts stories of three unaccompanied minors who sought asylum in Canada. In chapters that address reasons for leaving, saying goodbye, the journey, and adjustments to a new life, Tom profiles Afshin (an Iranian teen avoiding the draft), Alain (a Burundi youth whose mother died and whose father was imprisoned), and Patricia (a Ugandan whose identity as a lesbian makes her a target for discrimination). The teens' stories are told in simple language that conveys the physical dangers they faced as well as the emotional toll of being uprooted without parents to a completely different culture. Baillairges digital art employs bold colors (black, red, and green) and simple shapes that convey the settings, feelings, and differences between Canada and their countries of origin. Speech balloons and graphic panels are also used, personalizing the presentation. Based on Tom's documentary film of the same title and appended with updates about each of the profiled refugees, this will serve to humanize the circumstances of those seeking safe haven.--Kay Weisman
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Weisman, Kay. "Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 14, 15 Mar. 2023, p. 45. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A742922090/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3730157a. Accessed 17 July 2023.
Alone
By Meaghan Thurston
A review of Alone by Paul Tom
Published on March 16, 2023
Alone: The Journeys of Three Young Refugees is the illustrated adaptation-in-prose of the Gémeaux Award-winning documentary film, Seuls, by director Paul Tom. In these pages we meet Alain, Patricia, and Afshin – three of the many hundreds of child refugees who arrive in Canada every year alone without their families.
Alone
Alone
The Journeys of Three Young Refugees
Paul Tom
Translated by Arielle Aaronson
Illustrated by Mélanie Baillairgé
Groundwood Books
$24.99
cloth
144pp
9781773069272
Blunt, heartbreaking, and hopeful, Tom’s text in translation by Arielle Aaronson gives them voice. Stranded in Nairobi with his brothers, waiting for a call from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees after the death of his mother, fifteen-year-old Alain despairs: “We don’t know when our suffering will end and the happy days will begin.” At the Roxham Road land border crossing to Canada, seventeen-year-old Patricia struggles to take her next step: “The farther I go, the more I distance myself from my old life. I’m scared of the unknown stretching out before me. It’s July, but I’m cold.” Thirteen-year-old Afshin feels invincible and excited at the prospect of fleeing war-torn Iran: “All I can think is, ‘Look out, world – adventure, here I come!’” But soon the dangerous and lonely reality of his journey becomes clear.
To promote empathy, the reader is inserted as the main character at the outset of each chapter. “Imagine that you’re going away. Far, far away. And neither of your parents will come with you.” Alone uses this trick sparingly, but effectively. On a muted canvas peppered with stark reds and greens, illustrator Mélanie Baillairgé storyboards the bitterness of separation and the bittersweet relief of arrivals. In Alone, these tender and real stories find shelter.mRb