Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope
Picture Book
For ages 6 and up
Candlewick, 2009 ISBN: 978-0763642716
One day, after a rain shower, a little boy who lives in a war ravaged world sees a little plant pushing its way through the soil. The little boy carefully tends the plant, and in time he recognizes that it is a grapevine. The vine grows up the barbed wire fence that prevents the little boy from going to the hills that he once visited with his father. The vine grows and prospers, and soon it provides the children in the war zone with a shady place to play.
Then something terrible happens, soldiers from the other side of the fence pull up the vine and they throw it in a ditch. The little boy can't help feeling that his heart is going to break; but is doesn't break after all.
In this powerful and very moving picture book, Michael Foreman celebrates the resilience and courage of the human spirit. He shows his readers how people, even in the most trying of times, can find something to live for. Against the stark grey landscape of ruined homes and lives, Michael Foreman gives us the warm glow of something green and living, and we can see how a simple plant can give people hope for a better future.
