Postcards

Deborah Ellis, Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees. Toronto, Canada: Groundwood Books, 2009 144 pp. ISBN-10: 0888999070; ISBN-13: 9780888999078 (nonfiction, 12+)

As in Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak (2004) and Off to War: Voices of Soldiers’ Children (2008), Ellis here gives voice to the youngest sufferers of the tragic catastrophes brought about by war and conflict. The children speak for themselves in Ellis’s books with minimal editorial comment. Refugee children now in Canada and Jordan speak frankly about the horrors and misery they and their displaced families endure: poverty, ill health, disability, fear of deportation, discrimination, uncertainty for the future and much more. Particularly moving in the children’s words is evidence of their capacity for hope and of their resilience in overcoming horror and devastation in positive ways. Yemen, 13, a young musician from Baghdad comments: “I wish we could use music somehow to stop war. I know it sounds silly, but instead of picking up a gun, soldiers should instead pick up a guitar or a saxophone. . . . They could have battles with music, to see who could make the best music.”

Glenna Sloan

Wolfgang Korn, Das Rätsel der Varusschlacht (The Mystery of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest), Illus. Klaus Ensikat. Cologne: Fackelträger, 2008 224pp. ISBN: 978-3-7716-4379 (nonfiction, 12+)

In the year 9 Anno Domini, Aminius and his Germanic warriors defeated the forces of General Varus. How can we tell? Wolfgang Korn describes how historians and archaeologists try to reconstruct the mystery of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Korn demonstrates how every discipline proceeds and makes conclusions from their actual research results. He holds his readers in suspense with counter-arguments and encourages them to critically reflect on scientific or academic “proofs.” The brilliant ink drawings by Klaus Ensikat illustrate the past in rich detail. The self-contained form of illustration illuminates many issues beyond the text. This enlightening, innovative and well-researched nonfiction book combines information in both the text and the illustrations. The nonfiction nominee for the German Youth Literature Award for 2009, this work engages the reader’s emotions and extends an invitation to think for oneself.

Susanne Helene Becker

Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young Illus. June Allan, Gervelie’s Journey: A Refugee Diary. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2008 32 pp. ISBN-10: 1845076524; ISBN-13: 978-1-84507-652-8 (Nonfiction picture book, 8+)

This true story traces Gervelie’s and her father’s escape from the war-torn Republic of Congo to the Ivory Coast, then to Ghana, and eventually across Europe to their current home in Norwich, England. Gervelie’s candid prose conveys the fear and uncertainty of refugee life without an excess of drama or sentiment. The grim horror of soldiers and guns are countered by more personal hardships that children will understand, such as being unable to say goodbye to her friends or receive phone calls from her mother. Full-page watercolor illustrations are supplemented by smaller photographs of Gervelie and her family. Two pages of historical information and a map are also included.

Tanja Nathanael

Michael Foreman, A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2009 32pp. I SBN:: 9780763642716 (picture book, 4–8)

Many children around the world, both in the last century and this, have spent all their young lives surrounded by war. Michael Foreman, acclaimed international illustrator, here pays tribute to the human spirit in a simple, beautifully illustrated tale of healing and renewal experienced through the eyes and heart of a young boy. The child’s home has been reduced to rubble. A barbed-wire fence separates him from the streams and hills he once visited. Seeing a tendril of green peeping up from the ruin, the boy nourishes it until a sturdy grapevine spreads across the fence. Soldiers tear down the vine, but in the spring it sends forth new shoots that mingle with growth from seeds planted by a child on the other side of the fence. “Roots are deep and seeds spread,” thinks the boy. “One day the...