Ages 4+

Tiger and Turtle live in the same forest and stay out of each other’s way.  They may not always agree, but they have learned there is no use arguing or fighting.  After all, “a tiger’s claws could not harm a turtle’s shell any more than a turtle’s feet could outrun a tiger’s.”  Then one day, the tiniest of flowers drifts down from the sky and changes their relationship forever.

Turtle wants to eat the flower, but Tiger has other ideas, and, while they may not be able to hurt each other (at least not very easily) they can sure fight over a flower!  For instance, Tiger can swipe at the flower and send it soaring out of Turtle’s reach.  And Turtle, once she is angry enough, learns that biting Tiger’s leg is actually pretty effective.  The two go back and forth escalating their efforts to control each other and gain the flower.  It seems as though disaster will surely befall them both, but at the last minute, we learn there was never anything to fight about as Tiger and Turtle narrowly escape a gruesome fate—together!  It is no surprise at all that after this, Tiger and Turtle move beyond mere tolerance to become the best of friends.

This gorgeous book, with a strong message about resolving conflict and the futility of fighting is, perhaps fittingly, dedicated to the author’s brother.  It is likely that the sibling relationship is the first place many children learn such lessons, and they will doubtless relate to the silliness and extremes Tiger and Turtle go to, to get their own way.  The art, inspired by Indian and Pakistan designs for shawls, rugs, and jali windows and rendered on handmade Chinese paper, is simply beautiful.  Indeed, gazing at Rumford’s warm colors, transcendent designs and the boldly drawn yet slightly dreamy Tiger and Turtle is likely to make anyone feel peaceful and at ease.  A book that can bring children to laugh, dream, calm down and think about important lessons is certainly a treasure.  Parents and children, perhaps for different reasons, will both want to reread Tiger and Turtle many times.

Abigail Sawyer
November 2011

Sylvia Vardell at Poetry for Children recently posted an article entitled “Poetry, Peace and USSBY” in which she discussed the presentation she and poet/artist Anna Grossnickle Hines would be giving at the 9th IBBY regional conference: Peace the World Together Through Children’s Books. Click here to read about their presentation “Peace Through Poetry for Young People”, learn about Anna’s new book Peace: A Recipe, and see the Poetry Books for Young People About War and Peace bibliography that Sylvia wrote.

And if you haven’t done so already, be sure to read PaperTigers’ post Poetry Friday: p*tag compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong to learn more about Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong‘s e-book p*tag. It’s an exciting anthology of 31 poems newly written and published to coincide with National Teen Read Week this month in the US: “the first ever electronic poetry anthology of new poems by top poets for teens”.

Michael Foreman,
A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope
Walker Books / Candlewick Press, 2009.

Ages 5-11

A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope is a timeless fable with particular relevance for today’s young readers.  Michael Foreman, one of the UK’s foremost illustrators and storytellers, has created a masterpiece that combines uncluttered but meaningful prose with beautiful watercolors in contrasting monochrome and joyous, unstoppable color.

A boy finds a “speck of green” among the rubble that is the bleak, monochrome landscape of his home, and nurtures it with almost desperate care.  His world is separated from the outside by a tall, barbed wire fence: but as the plant grows, it covers the fence, bringing welcome shade, and birds and butterflies.  Other children come there to play and help care for the sturdy vine. Then the unthinkable happens.  Soldiers from the other side of the wire rip the vine away, leaving it to die in a ditch.  Color has once again gone out of the world.  The boy’s heartbreak is palpable.

Life continues through a joyless, cold winter but spring brings with it new growth – on the other side of the fence.  A girl appears and nurtures the plants in her turn, under the disinterested eyes of the soldiers.  Soon there are shoots on the boy’s side too.  Tendrils meet and entwine across the fence, and children on both sides come together to play and tend the vine.  The boy realises that it will grow despite the soldiers’ efforts to destroy it – and in the same way, the fence itself will one day disappear.  The seeds for that have been sown.

Perfectly honed for young children, A Child’s Garden also has much to offer older readers.  At first glance, Foreman’s use of monochrome versus the color of the vine and the life it attracts seems very clear cut.  However, a deeper reading, picking out details in the illustrations especially, provides provoking food for thought, reinforcing the tenacity of the seeds of hope not only sown in the boy’s heart but spreading and growing elsewhere. Foreman’s virtuoso illustrations draw out the story’s multilayered complexity and provide wordless stimuli for readers to put out their own tendrils of hope for the future.

A Child’s Garden is a moving, empowering read that, like all good fables, will leave a lasting, deep-rooted impression on its readers.

Marjorie Coughlan
September 2011

Throughout the exhibit, visitors will explore the themes of loyalty, separation, excitement, survival and identity portrayed in the books. They will go behind the scenes of each story and learn of the authors’ inspiration through interesting and sometimes unseen items such as manuscripts, early sketches, interviews and photographs. Once Upon A Wartime also offers all-important historical context through expert interpretation and genuine examples of relevant objects including evacuee labels and letters, aircraft recognition cards and a tail fin from a German incendiary bomb.

Diane Lees, Director-General of the museum, says: “War has inspired authors of children’s stories for generations and we’re delighted to draw together some of the very best examples in Once Upon A Wartime. The Imperial War Museum is the museum of everyone’s story so focusing on these extraordinary fictional accounts of conflict is an innovative, and we hope successful, way of helping children, and adults, understand the experience of war.”

Zoe Toft blogs at Playing by the Book and visited the exhibit last month. Read and see photos from her visit  here and here. Click here to watch a video of Hazel Brown, Exhibitions Researcher, talking about the exhibit and here to watch Helena Stride and Grant Rogers of the IWM Learning team explain more about the exhibition’s learning and events programs.

In August 2011, the Imperial War Museum will host a Children’s Literature Festival based on the exhibit. Authors and illustrators who will be taking part include Michael Morpurgo, Marcia Williams, Michelle Magorian, Jane Serraillier (daughter of Ian Serraillier), Martin Brown, Karin Littlewood, Bernard Ashley and Maurice Gleitzman. For those of you who live in the northern UK, you may be interested to know that the exhibit will move to the IWM North in Manchester on February 11, 2012 and run until September 2, 2012.

Kenji and the Cricket is a little known classic of  Canadian children’s literature.  Written by the late Adele Wiseman in 1988, and illustrated by late Japanese Canadian artist, Shizuye Takashima (author of A Child in Prison Camp), the work is a collaboration by two well known Canadian women artists.   I don’t think I’d ever read anything about Japanese war orphans in English for children until I read this book.  Up until then my only knowledge of the plight of such children was through John Dower’s Pulitzer Prize winning historical analysis of Japan in the immediate post-war period Embracing Defeat published in 1999.  And also, there was a film by well known Japanese filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki called Grave of the Fireflies, which was also released in Japan in 1988 alongside his children’s blockbuster, My Neighbor Totoro.

If you’re looking for a book that describes the plight of war orphans, you might just look up Kenji and the Cricket.  Do you know of any good books that cover this topic for children?  Do recommend them to me and others by leaving a comment!

Older Brother and Little Brother have just watched the trailers (both the long and short version) and are resolved to read the book – we’ll be reviewing it soon on PaperTigers. And I also want to find out a bit more about Daisaku Ikeda’s children’s books…

Following the “War & Peace in children’s books” tag will lead you to some of the other excellent books we have highlighted on the PaperTigers blog. Are there any books about war that you share with your children? Do share them with us!

A superb picture book which both provides historical context and reminds us of the human tragedy which accompanies the machinations of war is Photographs in the Mud by Dianne Wolfer and illustrated by Brian Harrison-Lever (Fremantle Press, 2005). We follow the stories of two soldiers, one Australian, the other Japanese, as they set off for the front in Papua New Guinea. Jack leaves behind a pregnant wife; and Hoshi, his wife and small daughter. Each carries photographs to remind them of home – and the passing of time is emphasised through the illustrations as these photographs change.
There are many casualties on both sides before Jack and Hoshi encounter one another. Both fatally wounded, they turn to the comfort of the photographs that are their only connection with home – and then share them with each other. When they are found the next day, a soldier retrieves the photographs from the mud and tries to separate them but they are stuck together.

Photographs in the Mud is a moving tribute to the soldiers who fought and died in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War and serves as a sensitive reminder of the human cost, not just for the soldiers themselves but for those left waiting in vain for the return of their loved ones.

The story was inspired by a trip Dianne Wolfer made along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, during which she heard many stories about the fighting there during the Second World War. There are photos from this trip on her website, as well as teachers’ notes to accompany the book.

The marketing material we received from Orca, along with our review copy of the book, says: “For the future to be better than the past, better than the present, we must equip our children with an understanding of the world around them and encourage faith in their ability to bring about change.” The latest issue of PaperTigers heartily echoes their sentiment, and One Peace encapsulates it perfectly: by telling the stories of youth who have taken leadership roles, it inspires young readers to take their own steps toward world peace. Told through art, poetry, quotations, and photographs, the book includes profiles of Farlis Calle, who started Colombia Children’s Movement for Peace; Craig Kielburger, three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Free The Children, an organization he founded at age 12; Kimmie Weeks, who established Voices of the Future, Liberia’s first child rights advocacy group, and many more.

The idea for the book, which has been included in the 2008 Smithsonian Notable Books for Children list, came during a presentation, when Wilson was asked by a child “why children are taught about war but not peace.” One Peace was, ultimately, her response. But she has more to say about the matter: her plan is to write a series of books about “building a more peaceful and just world under the guidance of our wise children.” Hurray for that!

To read about Janet Wilson’s painting of the activists’ portraits, check here. And for more of her artwork, take a peek at her PaperTigers gallery.