… and he is us.
This classic Pogo line could be the sub-subtitle for this fantastic book about the kind of flawed
thinking that makes wars possible.
With a few days left before Remembrance Day, it’s a perfect
time to bring this home and start these talks with kids old enough to start
understanding.
By
Davide Cali and Serge Bloch
Two soldiers sit in foxholes on opposite sides of an unnamed battlefield. Each is certain that he knows about the other. “Except for hunger, the enemy and I have nothing in common. He is a wild beast. He knows no mercy. I know this because I read it in my manual.” We follow one soldier’s thoughts as he hides out in his hole, waiting for the end, and finally decides to go to the enemy’s hole, where he finds out that there is a whole different side to this enemy than he was led to believe.
This simple, revealing snapshot is written in a spare style that never goes into brutal detail, but shows clearly what is going on with these soldiers, both regular men with no wish to be in this war, but believing that they must. The cartoon-ish illustrations are equally simple but impactful, employing interesting touches like holes ripped from the very paper that the artist was drawing on.
Excellent as this is, I will call it a library
pick for most people, though a family living with war might want it around full-time
for when their kids need to talk. I am marking this both grades 4-6 and K-3 as categories, but would probably use it with grade 2 and above.