Barnaby Unboxed! by The Fan Brothers

We all wanted Barnaby to go on a hero’s journey: facing disillusionment, obstacles, and various ordeals, but in the end coming back to his home, 

transformed for the better by his experiences. Fan Brothers

Barnaby is half mouse, half elephant with a dash of flamingo. He has been living in a box on the shelf of a toy shop. His box says he is a perfect pet and fully trained. There are so many perfect pet boxes to choose from. It seems no one is noticing that he is perfect until one day a young girl arrives. Barnaby becomes her very special friend. They do everything together. Best of all they enjoy watching the television series 'Barnaby and Friends'. Sadly though, it is this show that leads to a devastating change. The Perfect Pet company release a new Rainbow Barnaby. 

"The next day, the little girl asked her father if she could have a Rainbow Barnaby."

"The answer was no. Barnaby felt a wave of relief wash over him. But after that, the girl no longer played with him quite as often as she used to ..."

Do you recognise this plot idea - I love you Blue Kangaroo; Ducky's Nest; Arnold, the Prickly Teddy; The Sea Saw; and Finding Monkey Moon.

The little girl no longer takes Barnaby for walks. And one day her father fails to notice that Barnaby is left behind. It is raining and dark and Barnaby is lost. Will he ever find his way back home? And after weeks outside in the rain and dirt will the little girl even recognise him? Is there someone who can help him? 

I have read this book many, many times and the warm happy ending still makes me so emotional. 

Joy, despair, reunion, community—delightfully, all here. Kirkus

Barnaby Unboxed is a simple story, with universal themes, and it is told beautifully. The possibility of interesting and important conversations about exploitation would be a bonus. Just Imagine

There are some valuable themes of found family, what home means, self-worth and finding (and appreciating) what we have. It's a profound little book, and told in age appropriate language, all accompanied by luminous impressionist inspired artwork throughout. Nonstop Reader

It will be exciting to show this book to a group of Teacher-Librarians at a conference next month. The case reveal (pulling off the dust jacket to reveal the image underneath) is a spectacular surprise. And then I can show the brilliant end papers. (You can see these parts of this book here). School libraries here in Australia have very limited budgets but these two books should be added to every collection - yes they are that special! See inside Barnaby Unboxed here. Check out all the books by The Fan Brothers - I have talked about nearly all of them here on this blog. Here is a generous interview between The Fan Brothers and Betsy Bird. 

I previously talked about The Barnabas Project which is the companion volume to Barnaby Unboxed. 

The Barnabus Project

Barnaby Unboxed might make you think of Toy Story. Older readers should look for this middle grade series:

They threw us away

And this powerful book too:

Ollie's Odyssey

Gozzle by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Sara Ogilvie

Bear wakes up from his hibernation. He sees an egg. He could eat this for breakfast, but then he hears it tapping and, quite suddenly, out pops a baby goose - a gosling. The bear is the first face she sees so of course she thinks this bear is her daddy. Young Goozle is "programmed" to follow and imitate the first face she sees which would usually be her own parents. To the young goose it seems obvious that Bear is her daddy. Bear is not happy but underneath his gruff exterior there are hints of his kindness and as the seasons progress it is also clear this pair are forming a strong bond. But then comes the day little Goozle is old enough to fly and then old enough to fly with her flock - it is time for the geese to migrate to a warmer place. Like all good parents, Bear worries about his young charge. Can she swim? Can she fly? Will she be safe when she flies away? And most important of all - will Bear ever see her again? Bear heads back to his cave to hibernate through the winter. Then spring arrives and so does ...

Julia Donaldson had been thinking about animal imprinting. Here is a list of animals that use this process to assist their young: geese, ducks, zebras, raccoons, guinea pigs, chickens, hyenas, and the turkey.

Here is a three minute video Q&A where Julia Donaldson talks about Gozzle. I'm sure you are very familiar with lots of Julia Donaldson picture books. My own favourites are: Follow the Swallow, The Magic Paintbrush, Tiddler, Who lives here?, Room on the Broom, and The Snail and the Whale. I have a plan to read Paper Dolls next - I gifted this to a friend for her granddaughter and then another friend mentioned it was a huge hit with her own four young children. 

I am sure you have your own Julia Donaldson book collection either at home or in your school library. Goozle is another sweet story by this master storyteller which is sure to charm young children and adults alike. The happy ending certainly made me smile.

Bookseller blurb: It's springtime. Bear has woken up hungry and finds a lost egg outside his cave. Breakfast? No! Out hatches Gozzle, a very sweet little gosling who is convinced that Bear must be her daddy – and that she should be able to climb, dig and eat honey just like him.

Sara Ogilvie was born in Edinburgh and now lives in Newcastle. She graduated with an Illustration/Printmaking degree from Edinburgh College of Art. Sarah has won numerous awards for her work including a Commonwealth Heads of Government commission, presented to Nelson Mandela and HRH Queen Elizabeth II. Her work is inspired by words, street life, antiquities, posters, old wives tales, household appliances, carpets, masks, trying to spell sounds, packaging and old second-hand bookshops… Nosy Crow  

She is the illustrator of many books including Dogs Don't Do Ballet, Do Not Enter the Monster Zoo, Once Upon a Wish and Julia Donaldson's Detective Dog.

If you are thinking of your library program it would be terrific to explore some Julia Donaldson books with your young groups and then, even better, use these as a jumping off point to explore all the different illustrators whose work is showcased via her huge body of work. I would explore illustrators such as Helen Oxenbury; Charlotte Voake; Yuval Zommer; Emily Gravett; Catherine Rayner; Sharon King-Chai; Rebecca Cobb; and of course Axel Scheffler. 

Donaldson’s collaborations beyond Axel Scheffler offer refreshing artistic variety while keeping the same warmth and playfulness that children love. In Gozzle, Ogilvie’s textured and expressive artwork is the perfect companion to Donaldson’s storytelling, helping bring to life a tale that is as visually rich as it is emotionally meaningful. Popular Picture Books

A House in the Woods by Inga Moore

Two little pigs build their houses in the woods. Sadly, after a day of exploring, they return to find Bear has moved into one house and it is wrecked and Moose has moved into the other house and that one is wrecked too. This all means the two pigs and Bear and Moose have nowhere to live. Then Moose suggests they could work together and build one big and perfect house for all of them. Well yes they could attempt this project but really they need some experts 

"so Moose called the Beavers on the telephone ... "

The Beavers are happy to help but in exchange they want peanut butter sandwiches. This is agreed and so the construction begins. 

"and by tea time the roof was on. (The lunch and tea times were on different days of course. Beavers are fast, but not that fast.)"

The sweet happy ending and those six plates of peanut butter sandwiches make this a perfect book to read aloud to your preschool or Kindergarten group.

Betsy Bird says: Now I have read A House in the Woods by Inga Moore and I can already tell you that twenty or thirty or forty years from now a man or woman will be asked what their favorite picture book was as a child and they will describe the images here. Maybe they won’t remember the exact title. Maybe they’ll blank on the author’s name. But what they won’t forget is the feeling of perfect contentment and peace brought about through Moore’s combination of image and text. This is the picture book equivalent of a warm, soothing bubble bath.

When you open this book make sure you take time to linger over the end papers. And if uou read the review by Betsy Bird you will be alerted to look for some other tiny details. 

A House in the Woods is an old book and of course it is sadly now out of print but you might be lucky and find a copy in a library. A House in the Woods is a NSW Premier's Reading Challenge book K-2 [24439].

Companion books:

Waiting for Winter

A House for Wombats

Decades ago I saw my first book illustrated by Inga Moore and I fell in love with her art style.

The Vegetable Thieves

In my former libraries I had copies of Aktil's Big Swim and Aktil's Bicycle Ride. Other books illustrated by Inga Moore are:

Six Dinner Sid

Here is a full list of books illustrated and written by Inga Moore:

• Aktil's Big Swim (Oxford University Press, 1980)
• Aktil's Rescue (Oxford University Press, 1982)
• The Vegetable Thieves (Andersen Press Ltd, 1983; Viking Press, 1984, ISBN 9780670743803)
• A Big Day for Little Jack (1984)
• The Truffle Hunter (Andersen Press Ltd, 1985)
• Fifty Red Night-caps (Walker, 1988, ISBN 9780744517835)
• Rose and the Nightingale (London: Andersen Press, 1988)
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Prentice Hall, 1989)
• Six-Dinner Sid (Simon & Schuster, 1990, ISBN 9780750003049)
• Oh, Little Jack (1992)
• The Little Apple Tree (1994)
• Six Dinner Sid: A Highland Adventure (2010)
• A House in the Woods (Candlewick Press, 2011)
• Captain Cat (Walker Books, 2012, ISBN 9781406337303)
• Moose's Book Bus (Candlewick Press, 2021)

You might also look for her editions of Wind in the Willows; The Secret Garden; Anne of Green Gables and The Reluctant Dragon. For a short time Inga Moore lived in Australia but she now lives in the UK. 

Water is Water by Miranda Paul illustrated by Jason Chin

Here is a strange suggestion - do not read the words in this book when you pick it up for the first time. Just turn the pages slowly and enjoy the scrumptious illustrations and do not skip past the first page, the title page and the dedication page. As you move through the story you will notice the seasonal changes and way these children embrace their outdoor environment. 

You can see nearly every page from this book here. 

Now go back and read the lyrical text. Miranda Paul has incorporated all aspects of the water cycle into a very satisfying narrative. This book is a science lesson but it absolutely does not feel like one. All of the water 'facts' are reserved for the final pages along with a further reading list.

"Puddles are puddles unless ... puddles freeze. Glide. Slide. Put on the brakes! Ice is ice unless ... it forms flakes."

If you have an audible subscription the audio version of Water is Water is well worth exploring. Here is the website for Miranda Paul. Check out my previous post. Scroll down through this site to find teaching resources for Water is Water. 

Chin’s realistic watercolor-and-gouache illustrations offer repeat readers seemingly endless new details, like the brother’s propensity for finding small animals with which to torment his sister. ... An engaging and lyrical look at the water cycle. Kirkus

Water is Water exemplifies how a complex subject shared through story engages the child, leap frogs all the diagrams and other didactics, and goes straight to the brain! Rather than “following the drop,” as many water cycle books do, this one analogously follows the constant motion of children, each on their own unique path. The children play and explore finding their relationship with nature – joining in as the natural story unfolds around them. Paul and Chin bring home to their readers a story of enormous proportions, one that is largely invisible to all of us, by focusing on children doing what they do outdoors. Brilliant! Montessori Images

Companion books:

Water can Be

Hey Water

Summer Blue

I have a huge 'want to read' collection on Pinterest. In a moment of enormous generosity my friend from Kinderbookswitheverything hunted out a heap of these titles from her library for me to borrow over the summer. Water is Water was one of those titles.  Water is Water is still in print but sadly it is way too expensive for school libraries here in Australia. 

Jason Chin is an award-winning illustrator. Here in Australia very few libraries hold copies of his Caldecott winner - Watercress - but is a book I really want to explore more closely. 

Over and Over by MH Clark illustrated by Beya Rebai

"And all the while, we'll watch the clouds change, making rabbits and fish in the sky. 
They will never quite look this way again, and neither will you or I."

This is a beautifully illustrated book that falls into a category I previous discussed - Poetry with Pictures. There is no real plot just a series of slightly philosophical statements or homilies. The words are also a series of wisdoms shared by an adult to their child. I put one of my favourite lines under the cover above.

"Over and over, the sun will rise and touch the sky above. And over and over you'll open your eyes, good morning to you, my love."

"Over and over we'll put on our shoes and our coats and our warm wool hats. And I'll open the door to the world with you. And we'll greet the day like that."

From the publisher: In a world marked by uncertainty, this reassuring tale celebrates the gentle rituals that ground a child’s day. Over and Over follows a young girl and her father as they enjoy life’s simple everyday pleasures—from sitting down for breakfast to gazing at the clouds to counting the stars before lying down to sleep. With poetic storytelling and captivating imagery, each page honors the calming magic of togetherness and the comforts in routine. 

And we will leave angels and footprints and tracks in the field, all gone sparkling and white.

Near the end of the book the pages fold out to reveal all four seasons. 

Here is a very detailed interview with the author MH Clark and the illustrator Beya Rebai. Read more about MH Clark and see inside other books here. See more art by French illustrator Beta Rebai here. 

There are other books in this series by MH Clark:

And I found these too - I am keen to see more of her work:

Rain by Anders Holmer

Bookseller blurb: This haiku collection will enchant both nature lovers and budding poets. The spare, lyrical text describes a series of short vignettes, each of them taking place in a different kind of rain, from thunderstorms to falling flower petals. The poems 'some serious, some gently humorous' depict scenes from all over the globe: a horse struggling to plow a field, a father changing a tire while his children play, and two friends making up after a fight. 

Koja Agency: Rain has just fallen, a baby tooth is loose, a beetle stands up soaked and dazed on the gravel, a mole is lurking underground while a guy on a horse gets a phone call from his grandmother. In other places the snow is melting, and the butterflies soon expected to arrive. Today’s paper is dropped from a suspension bridge and two best friends forget to be angry when a rain of flowers falls. On the overall theme of rain, this book depicts different magnificent and extraordinary places around the world. Each spread represents a new world full of subtle details and ingenious humor. Anders Holmer portrays in his unique way what is going on in that moment in that specific place. Short haiku texts accompany the grandiose spreads.

Yesterday was my third visit to one of our large chain bookstores. They have a number of sale tables filled with children's books acquired by the store before 2019. Every time I visit, I pick up another book or two. There are still heaps of treasures on these tables. My friend from Kinderbookswitheverything picked up nine splendid titles. I will talk about some of these once she puts them into her school library and I can borrow them. We BOTH picked up this book because luckily there were two copies Retail price AUS$28.50 bargain price $14.25 - and two copies have been on the shop shelf since December 2018. Maybe no one picked it up because they read this very negative review from a Swedish newspaper? 

In contrast this book gained a Kirkus Star review: While these poems do not strictly follow all the characteristics of haiku, they do evoke different moods, such as the gathering darkness of a crocodile swamp. They also break stereotypes by juxtaposing technology and rural life—a cellphone rings amid a group of bareback riders galloping across a steppe. Most of all, they invite readers to pore over each colorful, expressive illustration to discover visual clues contained in the spare verse. A unique read-aloud that blends world cultures, poetic form, and natural splendor.

On each rainy spread, life happens in haiku, with all its cultural variety and complexity: A crane observes two children resolving a quarrel, a goatherd wiggles a loose tooth while surveying the flock, a lighthouse keeper discovers an unmoored boat as puffins glide by, rangers monitor a dying forest fire while creatures scurry away, and travelers with llamas climb a steep hillside, stopping for a beetle in their path. Visual details encourage readers to learn more about the countries of origin of the peoples and animals depicted throughout. School Library Journal (quoted by Barnes and Noble)

Okay - begin with the cover and title - Rain. If you look closely you can see rain or snow falling on this young Inuit child and his or her reindeer. But then think about rain and rein. Now flip to the back cover. You will discover this is a book of haiku poems. Each page can almost stand alone. A brilliant resource for teachers looking to inspire their students to write poetry in this beautiful form. This book is a book of poetry or course, but it also fits into my new category of Poetry with Pictures - these are picture books with no narrative.

My favourite page has puffins AND a lighthouse. To be honest this is probably why I bought this book. Here is the text from that page:

Slowly the boat drifts,
drifts away from the lighthouse -
never tied it up.

I also love the image on the page with a group of people (probably in Bolivia) trekking up a mountain with their alpacas only to be stopped by a tiny beetle.

Half-awake and drenched,

a beetle stand guard in the

middle of the path.

Rain is titled Regn in Swedish. It was published in 2018 so is sadly out of print. His debut book was It Happens! (2017). 

Anders Holmer is a Swedish architect, artist and author living in Gothenburg. He has been writing and illustrating children's books since 2017. His haiku album, Rain, was shortlisted for the ALMA Prize, Sweden's most prestigious children's literature award. In 2018, Anders Holmer's work was selected for the art exhibition at the New York Society of Illustrators. 

About Farewell (also translated as Leave): After a sad conversation with her mother, a child sets off on a long journey strewn with pitfalls, an imaginary journey inspired by the elements that populate her daily life. Along the way, she collects different objects, using a butterfly net: cloud, trumpet or diamond. From these, she makes something even more precious. When she returns, she is ready to be herself again.

About Utflykt (Excursion): In Anders Holmer's new picture book, we meet two children who saunter around in enigmatic fantasy landscapes. One is snuffy and sure of what he is doing, and the other is more questioning about what is going on. They try out different identities and take on different guises. You and I and the world are mixed together. We hear the echo of an adult's voice. Existential comedy ensues when they take on a concept they don't fully understand: Excursion. A celebration of children's ability to create hopeful playfulness and make sense of the world. A metaphor of how we in our lives grope for comprehensibility but instead have to accept that not everything can be understood, and that it is also okay. Maybe we won't be any wiser, but we'll have fun along the way.

The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

A little boy has a puppy and some chickens. He asks his mum 'Will the chicks grow? Will the puppy grow? Will I grow too?'

He watches the seasons change. The flowers grow, the trees grow, the corn grows in the field, the chicks become chickens and the puppy becomes an adult dog but what about the little boy? As Winter turns to Spring his mother packs his warm clothes into a box.

Spring, Summer, Autumn and then it is Winter again. 

"The little boy put on his warm trousers again and looked in the mirror. 'My trousers are too tight. The legs are too short.' .. 'My coat is too tight. The sleeves are too short."

I'm sure you know what has happened.

I picked this book up from our local charity bookfair today (it only cost $2). It has a dust cover! and under the cover there is a height chart to display for your child. The illustrations by the wonderful Helen Oxenbury are scrumptious. I will gift this book to the mum of a new baby. The new baby will arrive in early May. 

From the publisher: A classically beautiful picture book from Helen Oxenbury and Ruth Krauss. Share the universal experience of growing up and discover the rhythms of the seasons in this wonderfully timeless story. A little boy, some chicks and a puppy live on a farm. They see the first signs of spring growing in the fields and the little boy asks his mother if he and the puppy will grow too. Of course you will, she assures him, and as spring turns to summer he sees his dog growing taller and the chicks become chickens. But as the seasons change and everything grows around him, the little boy feels like he has stayed the same. Can he really be growing too?

The text of this book was written by Ruth Krauss in 1947. Later this book was published in 1975 and then in 2007 Helen Oxenbury added her illustrations. I think this book well deserves the label classic.

Companion book:

Big

You could also look for these:

When you're older

Milly and the Mulberry Tree

I read a review that also recommend this one too:

Jigsaw: a Puzzle in the Post by Bob Graham

 

Why were the Kelly's sent this parcel in the post? We will never know nor do we know who sent it but it was a perfect gift. Bob Graham has given us a wise and thought-provoking book with appeal to a very wide range of ages. Inside the parcel is a jigsaw - many of us remember spending time during those lockdown years (2020-2022) completing and then swapping jigsaws. The father has a very special watch which shows the seasons. This can be interpreted as a reference to how we marked time during lockdown rather than day by day or minute by minute. How wonderful that Dad is the family member with the patience and perseverance to keep going with the puzzle all through Spring and Summer. But alas when the puzzle is finished one piece is missing. Mum has a flashback moment where she remembers the day the rubbish was collected. 

The family jump in their little red car (like the one in Home in the Rain) and head off to the paper recycling centre. But this task seems impossible. Luckily themes of optimism, small miracles and hope ooze out of this book – Katie says they WILL find the puzzle piece even though we, as readers, see the enormous pile of paper at the recycling plant. This task looks even more impossible from the way the illustration shows the tiny family dwarfed by the towering pile of papers. I love the way Katie misinterprets the phrase wishful thinking and says: ‘let’s wish’. 

There are three double pages where the family hunt for the missing piece. Over these spreads, readers are given an insight in to the lives and memories of other people through an inventory of their discarded photos, magazines, newspapers, letters and tickets. These pages are worth lingering over. 

Sadly, the family head home - it seems they didn't find that tiny puzzle piece - or did they? Your young reading companion will exclaim with delight because they will know something utterly wonderful before the family make their discovery. 

This is a delightful, intimate and affirming family story. The end papers perfectly bookend the story when we see the jigsaw at the beginning with one missing piece and the finished puzzle at the end and this echoes the plot and the all-important happy and very satisfying ending. The jigsaw is an African sunrise - a morning scene filled with promise for a new day, and which will be enjoyed in the family's suburban lounge room with exotic animals. This puzzle itself is reminiscent of an early book by Bob Graham (Tales from the Waterhole) but there is no need for any familiarity with that book. 

There are so many tiny details to explore in the illustrations – fragments that reward close inspection and revisiting: the stamps on the parcel and the stamps on the envelope containing the thank you letter; the scattered papers as the family walk away from the recycling centre; and the scene on the title page where we can see the mail delivery truck and the postbox which the family then visit at the end of the book. Make sure you tilt the cover to see the laminated overlay of puzzle pieces. 

Notice the way the painting near their front door changes from a flying kangaroo to a lighthouse – I have no idea why, but I love the curiosity of this. This is one of many topics for speculation and discussion about this book. 

The children have alliterative names - Kitty Kelly and Katie Kelly perfect for reading aloud. The wordless pages are brilliant – I can imagine children giggling when they read this book and see the lost piece stuck to the dog and then ending up in the garbage truck. 

Notice also the repeated imagery of shoes and the soles of shoes all of which anticipate the ending when the piece comes home on Dad’s boot. My favourite page is the one where we see an image of legs as the family walk away empty handed – the body language in this illustration is so powerful. Also think about the way time is a character in this book. We have seen this idea before by Bob Graham in Silver Buttons.

Jigsaw: a puzzle in the post was an Early Childhood Children's Book Council of Australia Short listed book. I did hope with all my heart that it would WIN. This book, as with all Bob Graham books, should be added to every school and public library - here in Australia and beyond.

The CBCA judges said: The Kelly family embraces a mysterious puzzle anonymously sent to them in the post. The subplot narrates how a puzzle piece falls to the ground and goes missing while the family undertakes the long project of completing the puzzle. These parallel storylines continue throughout the book. Serendipitously, their threads do cross paths, and the reader is privy to this, while the characters are not. Themes of family, the generosity of strangers, persistence, hope, determination and serendipity are explored. Beautiful illustrations vary from small vignettes, time-lapse, and full-page double spreads. The use of framing and white backgrounds help to focus attention and are used to effect, while the language is simple and economical, yet magical. The mystery of time, and the slowness of its passage, are beautifully mirrored through the almost tragic journey that the puzzle piece takes to ‘the end of the world’, as it were. Without being didactic, Bob Graham shows that we may discover lost things, and enable things of value to return to consciousness when we have the courage to look into dark places and acknowledge our own flawed human nature.

Very strangely this book has a different title in the US:

Kirkus Star review: A celebration of small miracles and the hope that makes them happen.

Horn Book: "Graham's fan will know to expect a miracle. His squiggly, interrupted pen line can render even a pile of wastepaper dynamic, and the cadence of the text makes the ordinary grand."

Here is the publisher blurb: “Oh, let’s do it!” say Kitty and Katy and Mum when a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle mysteriously arrives in the post. “I have time on my hands,” agrees Dad. Starting in winter with the edges, by autumn they’re almost done, only to discover that one piece is missing. Mum is sure that it must have accidentally gone out with the rubbish, so the Kelly's pile into the car to comb through the local tip (“shouldn’t take long”). There they uncover forgotten letters, train tickets, discarded newspapers, and old photos yellow with age, but finding the missing piece is starting to seem like wishful thinking. “Let’s wish, then,” says Katy. As in all of Bob Graham’s work, the beauty here is in the details, with visual perspectives that offer a bird’s-eye view or take us underfoot, wordless sequences letting us in on a secret. Is it sheer luck – or perhaps the power of hope – that creates an ending to the story?

Our Storybox Library made a video of this book - here is a preview. Here are teachers notes and ideas for discussion from the publisher Walker Books. If you click on the label Bob Graham at the bottom of this post you will find details of heaps of his other splendid books. I'm sure the dog in this new book is really Rosie from Let's Get a Pup - do you agree?

Graham infuses his characters with a universal humanity. Mum, Dad, the children and the dog could be any of us. His families are always inspiring as they work together on a problem, promoting hope, radiating love and a togetherness we all aspire to emulate. Fran Knight ReadPlus

Every book from Bob Graham is a celebration. This acclaimed, adored Australian picture book maker has empathy, warmth, humanity and insightfulness brimming from every stroke of his pens and ink. Bookwagon loves Jigsaw: A Puzzle in the Post and recommends it all the way Down Under and back again to every bedtime reader. Book Wagon

Under the Broken Sky by Mariko Nagai

"In 1931, the Japanese government overtook the northern part of China and declared it an independent state called Manchukuo with the last emperor of China - Puyi - as the Kangde Emperor of Manchuria. The government of the newly founded Manchuria created a slogan 'Five Races Under One Union.' ... However, in reality, Manchukuo was a puppet state controlled by the Japanese government."

"As a state policy, Japan encouraged its citizens - especially impoverished villages and second and third sons of farmer - to relocate to Manchuria ... to provide much needed natural resources for the mainland. With the promise of a better life ... over three million Japanese civilians ... lived outside of Japan."

In 1945 Soviet Armed Forces broke into the Manchurian border. The Japanese Imperial Army had retreated and so the people had to flee, walking because trains were not running and they had no access to cars. Many died before and on the journey and also when they arrived in cities from malnutrition. Some people felt forced to give away their children to Chinese families in the hope they would survive. 

This book, which is told in the form of a verse novel, is the story of twelve-year-old Natsu and her little sister who with a neighbour they call Auntie are forced to fee their home and endure the most harrowing of journeys in the hope of finding safety and also their father who has been conscripted. 

This is not a book for young readers. I would say it is for ages 13+. 

Literary and historically insightful, this is one of the great untold stories of WWII. Much like the Newbery Honor book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Mariko Nagai's Under the Broken Sky is powerful, poignant, and ultimately hopeful. A book and a hug

Inside out and Back again

Here are two text quotes to give you a flavour of the writing in Under the Broken Sky. As with all of the best verse novels this book is filled with emotion. When Natsu was cold I felt cold. When she was starving I felt her aching hunger. Her pain and fear and despair will linger with me for a long time.

Running

We don't lock the door.
We don't release the chickens

from the hen house.

We don't board up the windows.

Holding Asa's hand,

I run out of the homestead ...

Run if anything happens.

And something is happening.

The Rest

We sit as one.
No one has anything

left to eat,

even our stomachs

have forgotten about us.

We've been carrying empty

canteens for so many days,
and we've been swallowing

spit in our mouths.

We don't know if we are

hungry or thirsty or tired.

We just lie there,

in damp clothes,

hoping that a train 

will come this way ...

Meet the illustrator Gerda Muller

 

Gerda Muller was born in 1926 in Naarden, the Netherlands. She studied at the Fine Arts School of Amsterdam and École Estienne of Paris. Gerda has illustrated over 120 books for children, many of which have been translated worldwide. Her book A Year in our New Garden appeared on the USBBY Outstanding International Books list. Gerda Muller lives in France.

Gerda Muller works across a wide variety of mediums and uses diverse techniques when illustrating. For precise line work, she typically works with black and sepia pen, using watercolours to add colour and detail. Her picture book illustrations have also made use of coloured pencils, oils, lithography and more recently, pastels.  Gerda Muller is known for her love of nature and natural scenes. Her illustrations are vibrant, detailed, and reflect the changing seasons and landscapes. Floris Books

Illustration from The Wildwood Elves

The lives of her subjects seem slower, more deliberate, and more joyful than do those of some of us in the modern world, as they happily progress through the seasons caressing baby animals, splashing in the sea, gatherin acorns, and catching snowflakes on their tongues. Monadock Mamma

On a snowy winter's morning, footprints trace a path from a child's unmade bed, past discarded clothes and breakfast dishes to the front door where they're joined by excited pawprints. But who else is making the footprints and what are they doing? In this delightful wordless picture book, the story of a child and a dog enjoying the snow is told entirely through following their footprints.