We are in the middle of fall, and Remembrance Day is just around the corner.
Here are four picture books to celebrate it all.
Fall
Fall is celebrated through the changing – and stealing? – of leaves.
The Leaf Thief
In this cute book by Alice Hemming and Nicola Slater (Raincoast Books, www.raincoast.com), Squirrel is out on a tree limb enjoying the leaves when he notices one is missing. In a panic, he jumps up searching everywhere for the leaf and calling out to his friend the bird for help to find it. He notices a mouse floating by on a leaf boat, and he accuses him of stealing his leaf.
Bird patiently reminds Squirrel that leaves go missing every year. But each day, Squirrel wakes up, panics, and accuses some innocent creature of stealing his leaves. Finally, he understands what is happening. But then one morning, the grass disappears, covered in a mound of white and Squirrel once again demands to know what has happened.
The Leaf Thief is a cute story with adorable illustrations. You can see the panic on Squirrel’s face and the ebbing away of patience on Bird’s. It would be a fun book to read aloud, which is good, because I could also see this being one of those books that kids will demand every night.
little tree
little tree by Loren Long is about an oak tree surrounded by other trees of the same size. Animals and birds play in the trees’ leaves until one day, all the leaves turn colour and start dropping onto the ground. All except little tree, who holds on tight to his leaves. Little tree continues to hold on to his leaves as seasons come and go. But one day, he notices the birds and animals are no longer playing in his canopy and his friends are now much taller than he is. It is only then does little tree makes a decision to embrace what scares him.
The illustrations are lovely, more realistic than The Leaf Thief. I always thought the message is nice in this one, showing kids the importance of change and being willing to embrace it.
Remembrance Day
On Nov. 11, please remember to pause for two minutes to remember those who died serving our country and those still fighting for freedom.
Both A Bear in the War and A Year of Borrowed Men are beautiful picture books.
A Bear in War is based on the true story of a Teddy bear that travels from a little girl in Quebec to her father on the frontlines of France during the First World War. Ten-year-old Aileen sent her favourite Teddy in a care package to her dad..
The book is written from Teddy’s perspective as he is first loved by Aileen, who wants to do something to remind her dad of home and to keep him safe. When Teddy finally arrives, dad, Lt. Lawrence Browning Rogers, places Teddy in his pocket, where he remains after the man is killed in at the battle of Passchendaele. Eventually, another solider finds Teddy and sends him back to Canada along with Lt. Rogers’ uniform and medals.
Teddy now lives in the Canadian War Museum (https://www.warmuseum.ca/ ) in Ottawa.
The illustrations are beautiful. There are also real photographs throughout the book as well as information about the family at the end.
A Bear in War is by Stephanie Innes and Harry Endrulat, illustrated by Brian Deines and published by Pajama Press (https://pajamapress.ca/).
A Year of Borrowed Men is also based on a true story and is set in Germany during the Second World War. The men in seven-year-old Gerda’s family are sent to war and in exchange, her family receives three French prisoners of war who must work in the farm and sleep in the pig kitchen, located next to where the animals sleep.
“Gerda knows they are under orders to treat the men as enemies, but it doesn’t seem fair. Can’t they invite them into the warm house for one meal? What harm could it do be friendly.”
Written by Michelle Barker, the book is based on her mother’s memories of growing up in Germany during the Second World War.
As it turns out, there was harm those who were friendly. Neighbours spied on neighbours and the Nazis were quick to respond.
The illustrations by Renne Benoit are also beautiful and I loved the author’s note, and family photos, at the back.
I enjoyed this story as I didn’t know this happened – that prisoners of war were forced to work at Germany farms to help out. I suppose it was better than Nazi work camps, although I can’t imagine all families were as kind as this one.
A Year of Borrowed Men is also from Pajama Press (https://pajamapress.ca/).
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Lisa Day is the author of two book blogs, Book Time, where she reviews a variety of books for a variety of readers and offers author Q&As, and followsummer.com Follow her on Twitter @LisaMDayC, Instagram @LisaMDayC and @LisaMDayReads, and check out Book Time at https://booktime584.wordpress.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BookTime584/