We have reached day ten of my twelve books of Christmas for 2021.
My good friend from Kinderbookswitheverything suggested I should share this book with you as another title for my Australian Christmas books because it is a good one to follow-up to my WWII story from yesterday - The Angel with a Mouth-Organ.
Early on Christmas morning the guns stop firing. A deathly silence creeps over the pitted and ruined landscape. A young soldier peers through a periscope over the top of the trench. Way out in no-man’sland, he sees a small red shape moving on the barbed wire. A brightly coloured robin is trapped. One wing is flapping helplessly. An eloquent counterpoint to the senselessness and inhumanity of war, In Flanders Fields tells the story of a young homesick World War I soldier, who risks his life to cross the no-man’s land and rescue a robin caught in the barbed wire that separates the opposing forces, dug into their trenches. This moving picture book is a plea for compassion. Norman Jorgensen
In Flanders Fields by Australian author Norman Jorgensen and Australian illustrator Brian Harrison-Lever is set at Christmas during World War I. The small robin is trapped in the barbed wire fence. A young solider bravely ventures out of his trench over to the wire to free the bird. As he turns to return to his comrades he hears singing - Silent Night - sung in German and back safely in the trench his mates are singing the same song.
I am pleased to say this book from 2002 is still available and for a really good price. In Flanders Fields won the CBCA Picture Book of the Year award in 2003. Here is a video of the whole book but I suggest you watch it without sound and read the text yourself.
The title of this book is taken from the famous poem by Canadian John McCrae.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Take a look at this post from Kinderbookswitheverything and these companion reads:
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