In The Silence Of The Night

The year is 1818.  In a small parish church in Oberndorf, Austria at the evening mass on December 24th, a new song, sung by the writer and composer, is heard for the first time.  They are accompanied by a single guitar and the choir.  Assistant Father Joseph Mohr had penned the six stanzas in 1816.  Local school teacher and organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, from the nearby town of Arnsdorf had been asked to write the music that very day.  Silent Night, Holy Night is the song.

Over the years whenever I've heard this music, I've immediately thought of my mom.  It was her favorite Christmas hymn.  After reading John Hendrix's new title released yesterday, Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 (Abrams Books For Young Readers) this melody has new meaning.  It began an unprecedented event.

One hundred years ago, a horrible war began.
It was the biggest conflict the world had ever seen.  Journalists would call it the Great War, but it wasn't great at all.  It was dreadful.  Today, we call it the First World War.

With that introductory paragraph, it's as if we've just heard Once upon a time.  We realize we are in the capable hands of an informed storyteller.  Five succinct explanatory paragraphs about this European conflict follow taking us into the treacherous trenches found in France during December 1914.

A young British soldier is writing a letter home to his mother.  In the first few sentences we learn he has been in the same location under increasingly difficult conditions due to terrain, weather and the nearby position of the German soldiers for almost four months.  His descriptions of the mud, rats and their bunkers read like a definition of deplorable.

He continues his letter recounting the happenings of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with a sense of awe.  As darkness fell over the war zone he and his buddies were gathered around a fire when he heard singing.  Who would be so thoughtless as to announce where they were?  When he gathered his courage and peeked over the top of the trench, he couldn't believe his eyes or his ears.

Lined up along the trench on the German side were a row of tiny evergreen trees lit with candles and lanterns.  The German soldiers were singing boldly and bravely, Silent Night, Holy Night.  A Christmas Eve celebration was happening in the last place it should have been.  All night the voices could be heard.

Christmas Day morning brought more surprises and a question was shouted out to the British soldiers.  No Man's Land became a place where comrades were laid to rest, small tokens and stories were exchanged and the traditions inherent in a holiday were observed by men from all walks of life who decided peace was possible.  When an enraged officer appeared as the British returned to their side, his orders for the time being were, as Charlie told his mother, followed to protect what they had experienced.


Again and again, what elevates a picture book to excellence is the passion the author and/or illustrator have for their project.  If it is there, it shines like the brightest beacon in pitch black darkness through the words and pictures.  Every part of this volume created by John Hendrix is luminous.

By including the initial enlightening two pages we are given enough background of the larger picture before the focus shifts to the specific days of the Christmas Truce.  This portion is written clearly enough to be easily understood, especially when using the example of dominoes.  It's a great technique to use something known by most to explain something probably not known as completely.

By having a young solider (he finished school only months before) write to his mother and sign his name at the end of the narrative, makes the experience more personal for readers.  When he relates the conditions within his trench and the surrounding area it gives us a true sense of time and place.  Specific details garnered from research make our involvement all the more real.  Here are a couple of sentences as an example.

Rain means more mud.
The mud here is like none I've ever experienced.  When it rains, a thick, loamy foam churns up from the ground and fouls everything we own.


Of course I first opened the dust jacket removing it from the book case.  To my total delight they are different.  The rich brown extends from flap edge to flap edge acting as a frame for two important visuals.  On the right flap John Hendrix includes a portion of the beginning of the letter and on the left we see a section of the signature at the letter's end.  The illustration on the front signifies the beginning of the truce as told by Hendrix.  On the back we see the men engaged in one of the activities of the day with a key line beneath.

WHY CAN'T WE JUST GO HOME---
AND HAVE PEACE?

My favorite illustration from the book spans across the book case.  In shades of blues and browns, the area of the trenches and No Man's Land on the night of Christmas day is shown.  Stars and a moon shine overhead.  A small glowing Christmas tree is left on the German side, soldiers peering over the edge, one arm raised in greeting.  Charley has stood up after finishing the letter, waving his hand in return.

The same shade of blue in varying intensity is used on the opening and closing endpapers.  There are two different pictures of Charley in his trench.  The first shows the length of the trench as he moves along carrying his weapon and gear.  In the second only a portion of the trench is seen as Charley leans against the wall with his letter.  These both appear in more complete color inside the body of the book.

These illustrations by John Hendrix were

drawn with graphite, fluid acrylic washes and gouache on Strathmore Vellum Bristol.  

Most of them flow across both pages drawing readers deeply into the story.  When necessary to the pacing, a single page, framed or unframed or a smaller illustration will be placed into the overall design.

Details in the scenery, the man-made embankments and bunkers, the equipment and uniforms increases the authenticity.  Another nice touch is to have some portions of the text appear to be handwritten, others in text and still others, the spoken words of the Germans, in another font style.  I think it's important to note Hendrix begins with two pages of wordless illustrations, except for a date, and concludes with the same.

The first time I read this, where I was sitting literally pulled away.  I was in the trench with Charley as he wrote the letter and when he experienced those two miraculous Christmas days.  Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 eloquently written and exquisitely illustrated by John Hendrix is a must have title.  At the end of the book an author's note, glossary, bibliography and index are included.  Be sure to read the dedication.

Update:  On Christmas Day 2014 Julie Danielson, author, reviewer at Kirkus and blogger at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast posted an interview with John Hendrix at Kirkus.

For more information about John Hendrix and his work follow the link to his website embedded first in this post.  If you follow the second link it will take you to his Tumblr page dedicated to this title.  He has posted several illustrations.  I am so appreciative of this book I am giving away a copy.  



Be sure to head on over to Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see what recommendations other bloggers are including this week in the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.  I am aware that my title is a fictionalized account of true events but felt compelled to include it in the challenge because of the thorough research employed by the author/illustrator.

To Their Last Breath

Everyone fortunate to have a dog choose them knows about their keen sense of smell.  When they catch a whiff of something, it's not just a scent but an entire story.  If Xena sticks her nose in the air, looks around and does not seem to want to continue, we turn around.  The nose knows.

Another of their innate abilities is their sense of love, loyalty, to the leader of the pack--you.  If I become fearful, Xena is alert.  This was never more apparent than when we were attacked by a German Shepherd loose in a park; her change into wolf mode was uncanny. It is because of characteristics unique only to them, canines were used extensively during World War I along the Front; many as messenger dogs.  Debut author, Sam Angus, recreates a year during the war through the story of a fourteen-year-old boy in Soldier Dog (Feiwel and Friends).


Twelve hours had passed.  He'd last seen her at eight that morning.  Faint with exhaustion and hunger, Stanley sank down.  How on earth could he find a creature lighter and quieter than the wind?

Stanley did not find the purebred, prize female greyhound, Rocket.  She returns home the next morning. His father, Da, prone to violent rages since the death of his wife and the enlistment of his older son, Tom, in the Great War, vows to not allow half-breed pups on the premises.  Six weeks after their birth, when the one most attached to Stanley, Soldier, is not taken by the tinkers, Da states he will drown him.  Awakened by Rocket's howling the next morning, to Stanley's dismay and rage, Soldier is missing.

Unable to bear a life that has become intolerable, Stanley leaves to look for Tom in France.  From Lancashire to Liverpool, he travels to enlist.  Lying about his age, he survives basic training, moving through Signal School, a division of the Royal Engineers.  When a new section of the Signals Service is formed, Messenger Dog Service, Stanley signs up, becoming a Keeper, Keeper Ryder.

Unlike the other men who are given three dogs to train, Stanley receives only one, Bones, a Great Dane.  He's told only men with three dogs go to the front, only men with dogs who bond with their master working perfectly without question.  Week after week Stanley prepares Bones, gunfire, heavy guns, bombs, and homing runs, until Colonel Richardson has no choice but to send them to France.

When communication lines (wires) are broken by gunfire and shelling, when men, runners, and pigeons can no longer be used the messenger dogs are sent.  Warfare in the trenches along the Western Front is brutal but a dog trained to come back through the worst of it, out of loyalty, will do so.  Key people in his home life, Da, Tom, and his teacher, Lana Bird, who Tom loves, merge with the soldiers who are Stanley's new family. Letters from those he cares about most play as important a role as the messages sent from one company to another on the field by the dogs.

The month of April 1918 will change everything Stanley believes to be true; unbelievable horror, suffering, pain, loss and heroism will pass in and out of his world.  Key battles, lost or won, will depend on the messenger dog who loves Stanley and who Stanley loves.  Readers will be unable to turn the pages fast enough to discover the fate of all involved.


In a word, this story, written by Sam Angus, is intense.  Meticulous research, providing details, is woven into dialogue and descriptions of place and time in England and France.  A sensory writing style binds the reader intimately to the events and action within the narrative; it's as if we one and the same with Stanley.  Broken into three parts; before enlistment, during service and after the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, chapter headings, sometimes only hours apart, contribute to the profound impact.  Here are several passages taken from an Advanced Reader's Edition (my only copy available).

The vast and bleak parade ground was surrounded by barracks, offices, and the entrance gates.  Fear kept drawing Stanley's eyes, like the needle of a compass, toward the gates.  Da might stomp through them at any minute, shouting for all to hear, "Fourteen! The daft twerp's only fourteen!"  Da would see the ill-fitting uniform, see the pants which billowed around his son's buttocks, see the puttee---the bandage-type stocking---that was in danger of unwinding at his right ankle, already unraveling at his knee.  Da would mock him and haul him home.

"The shelling's cut the lines, sir...There's no point, sir, they're blown to bits as soon as they're laid."
"Oh, God," breathed Hunter to the linesman, aghast and haggard.  "No signals and we can't lay new lines till nightfall.  We've only the runners and they haven't a chance---the Hun's taken the tunnel under the canal---they'd have to swim across."
Hunter raced back down to the Signal Station.  There were more shouts from below, unintelligible.  Fidget was shouting to Stanley that the front line had pulled back again, that it wasn't holding.  A man came up the stairs, white-faced, eyes full of fear, a fresh runner, with Hunter behind.  Hunter looked toward the canal and the sickle of flame that grew hourly closer.
Stanley looked at the face of the runner.  And he looked down at Bones, willing and ready.  Would he be wanted now? his round eyes seemed to ask.  Stanley saw, with a rush of love, the large square skull and wing-like ears, and he felt a lump rising in his throat.  Bones must go, a man should not be sent---the dog was faster, lower, had the better chance.
"No, sir.  Don't send a man. S-send my dog, sir."


Soldier Dog the debut work of author Sam Angus vividly brings to life the place of messenger dogs in service during World War I.  It is a story of incredible courage, both human and canine; heartbreaking and heartwarming, captivating and compelling, memorable to the final sentence.  For middle grade and up, this book has my highest recommendation. A historical note, author's note, photograph gallery and bibliography are found at the book's end.

Follow the link embedded in Sam Angus's name above to her official website.  The link embedded in the title contains more information about the book, the research, reviews and the first chapter.  Bobbie Pyron, author of The Ring, A Dog's Way Home and The Dogs of Winter, interviews Sam Angus here.