Pidge's Poppies by Jan Andrews illustrated by Timothy Ide

Pidge and Henry (a pair of pigeons) live near the Canberra War Memorial. Henry explains:

"It's where people remember those who died in wars."

Pidge remembers stories from her ancestors about the war in 1939 and the war in 1914 and the way one of his long-ago family members received the Dickin Medal.

"If the telegraph lines from the battlefront were bombed, the pigeons could still carry messages from soldiers back to headquarters. They saved many soldiers' lives."

Pidge and Henry hear the guide talking about war heroes and poppies. It is time to build their nest and the scattered poppies left by visitors are perfect. Is this a true story? It certainly feels like one and the back cover says yes, it is so here is a missed opportunity - this book would be so much better with some back notes and more details about these true events at our Canberra War Memorial. Luckily it was easy to find this information.

Photo from the Australian War Memorial

Each day the pigeon has been flying down to the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier to steal poppies, carefully crafting a nest in the lead-up to Remembrance Day in an alcove above the stained-glass window of a wounded Australian soldier. Read more here.

Watch a video from Channel Seven (23 seconds).

The illustrations in this book by Timothy Ide are terrific. I especially like the way the war memory pages are presented in sepia. He is the illustrator of another wonderful book - Tom the Outback Mailman. 

Here are a set of teachers notes from the publisher. Further reading from the Australian War Memorial.

I wonder why/how this 2024 book was missed by the CBCA 2025 Book of the Year judges. This is a book that could be shared with your youngest students who are sure to be amazed at the contribution of pigeons in many past wars.

Ide’s illustrations show a deep understanding of the text. The multi-layered illustrations create the visual story with much skill. The illustrations really shine a light on the story. The pigeons are lifelike in appearance and movement. The colours used vary according to the time frames. I love the sepia effect when the story travels through the world wars. The vivid red of the poppies sing and pop on the spreads they appear. Buzz Words

Look for these books too:

Lofty's Mission

Spies in the Sky

This final one might be hard to find in Australia but I saw it at the splendid D Day Museum in Portsmouth.

Lest we forget by Kerry Brown illustrated by Isobel Knowles and Benjamin Portas

Every week I visit a veteran in an aged care facility not far from my home.  His name is Bert and he was working as a solider when WWII began.  At the end of the war (he served in Darwin and PNG) the men were told not to talk about their experiences and so Bert does not talk about this experience in any detail but he has a voracious interest in WWI and especially the pacific campaign of WWII.

Bert met his wife while he was training other soldiers in Newcastle, north of Sydney, and this week they celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary.  All those years mean both of them have enormous stores of memory.

Lest We forget is about memories.  I shared this book with a Grade 3 teacher just prior to Remembrance Day November 11 and she found it was an excellent way to link this important commemoration with the experiences of young children.  While we do have many titles which classes can use for ANZAC Day we do not have so many books which explicitly mention Remembrance Day.

 "In 1997, Governor-General Sir William Deane issued a proclamation formally declaring 11 November to be Remembrance Day, urging all Australians to observe one minute’s silence at 11 am on 11 November each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia’s cause in all wars and armed conflicts."   (from the teacher notes by Elaine Smith)

One of the most powerful parts of this book is the use of textless pages to tell the story of the young soldier. As he leaves in his smart new uniform it is clear his young wife is expecting a baby.  Moving over two scenes we see a letter has arrived with a photo of the new baby and perhaps significantly she is not a new born.  There are so many discussion points for this one page.

There are 27 pages of teaching notes available which give you excellent strategies for using this important book with a class.   Here is another set of notes with additional activities.

I discovered this book by accident.  I had arranged to meet a friend at a local shopping mall.  Just before we met she had found this book in a discount department store.  Luckily she showed it to me and so I was able to pick up a copy for our school library.

Here is a review from the Sydney Morning Herald.

My ganddad says there are two types of days:

those you want to remember and those you want to forget