Floella Benjamin

Floella Benjamin reveals the hopes and fears, and the pain she experienced when leaving the Caribbean for an unfriendly new life in England. Her feelings are shared by any child who has had to adapt to a new life in a strange environment and culture.

Coming to England

LADYBIRD BOOKS

Humpty Dumpty

Floella's Cardboard Box Book

Presented by Floella Benjamin of Playschool and Playaway, this series of videos for two to five year-olds is designed to entertain while it introduces abstract concepts such as sharing, time, opposites, and shapes. The educational elements gently further pre-schoolers understanding of the world about them. Animation sequences, music, stories, mime, and puppetry all add up to an innovative and lively series of interactive pre-school programming, to be shown on Channel 4.

Colours and numbers

Hullaballoo

Dorling Kindersley, Inc

Hullaballoo combines traditional programming with mime, dance, song, animation, puppetry and a host of regular characters, including Ted Bear, and Floella Benjamin, a regular presenter of children's television. The use of puppets and animated characters in addition to the repetition and reinforcement of ideas allows children to build up a secure relationship with the characters and structure of the programmes.

Making and Sharing

Hullaballoo Videos

Jasmine's parents are increasingly worried about the dangers to their precious only daughter in South London so they have decided to move back, after 20 years, to Barbados. Her friends all think it's a wonderful opportunity, but all she knows is that she will miss them and the only life she has known. In Barbados her initial attempts to make friends with local teenagers meet with ridicule and she steals a motor yacht in a foolish attempt to get back to England. Rescued by a fisherman and his son, Jasmine begins school and encounters more prejudice and dislike because she is English, until she is saved from a group of bullies and befriended by the fisherman's son, Devlin. Devlin is fascinated by her stories of England and agrees to help her stowaway on a ship to get back there. This exciting adventure story explores issues involved in migration and feelings of loneliness and being trapped in a place where one doesn't want to be. Visit Floella's Sea of Tears page on her website www.floellabenjamin.com/www.floellabenjamin.com/Sea_of_Tears.html

Sea of Tears

Eileen Browne

Barry Gibson

Handa's Surprise

A story about the triumph of hope, love, and determination, Coming to England is the inspiring true story of Baroness Floella Benjamin: from Trinidad, to London as part of the Windrush generation, to the House of Lords. Follow ten-year-old Floella as she and her family set sail from the Caribbean to a new life in London. Alone on a huge ship for two weeks, then tumbled into a cold and unfriendly London, coming to England wasn't at all what Floella had expected . . . What will her new school be like? Will she meet the Queen? Filled with optimism and joy, yet deeply personal and relevant, young children will follow Floella's experiences of moving home and making friends. Alongside vibrant illustrations by Diane Ewen, this powerful story shows little people how courage and determination can always overcome adversity.

An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the Windrush Generation

Baroness Floella Benjamin's classic childhood memoir, Coming to England, includes a foreword by the author and some additional historical information. It is beautifully illustrated by Michael Frith. Floella Benjamin was just a young girl when she, her sister and two brothers arrived in England in 1960 to join their parents, whom they had not seen for fifteen months. They had left the island paradise of Trinidad to make a new home in London – part of a whole generation of West Indians who were encouraged to move to Britain and help rebuild the country after the Second World War. Reunited with her mother, Floella was too overwhelmed at first to care about the cold weather and the noise and dirt from the traffic. But, as her new life began, she was shocked and distressed by the rejection she experienced. She soon realized that the only way to survive was to work twice as hard and be twice as good as anyone else. This inspirational story is a powerful reminder that courage and determination can overcome adversity.

Floella Benjamin

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