{"id":139,"date":"2008-06-10T22:33:15","date_gmt":"2008-06-11T02:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/10\/review-of-why-war-is-never-a-good-idea-by-alice-walker\/"},"modified":"2008-10-10T22:26:56","modified_gmt":"2008-10-11T02:26:56","slug":"review-of-why-war-is-never-a-good-idea-by-alice-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"Review of Why War Is Never a Good Idea, by Alice Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"why_war_is_never_a_good_idea.jpg\"\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Why War Is Never a Good Idea<\/em><\/p>\n

by Alice Walker, illustrations by Stefano Vitale<\/p>\n

HarperCollins, 2007.\u00a0 32 pages.<\/p>\n

Starred Review<\/p>\n

Though War has eyes<\/em><\/p>\n

Of its own<\/em><\/p>\n

& can see oil<\/em><\/p>\n

&<\/em><\/p>\n

Gas<\/em><\/p>\n

& mahogany trees<\/em><\/p>\n

& every shining thing<\/em><\/p>\n

Under<\/em><\/p>\n

The earth<\/em><\/p>\n

When it comes<\/em><\/p>\n

To nursing<\/em><\/p>\n

Mothers<\/em><\/p>\n

It is blind;<\/em><\/p>\n

Milk, especially <\/em><\/p>\n

Human,<\/em><\/p>\n

It cannot<\/em><\/p>\n

See.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n

Though War is Old<\/em><\/p>\n

It has not<\/em><\/p>\n

Become wise<\/em><\/p>\n

It will not hesitate<\/em><\/p>\n

To destroy<\/em><\/p>\n

Things that<\/em><\/p>\n

Do not<\/em><\/p>\n

Belong to it<\/em><\/p>\n

Things very<\/em><\/p>\n

Much older<\/em><\/p>\n

Than itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is a haunting and poetic, artistic and beautiful book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The language is simple.\u00a0 The author talks of things that War cannot understand, but that it can destroy.<\/p>\n

The artwork is haunting, memorable and symbolic.\u00a0\u00a0On one page, the words are: Picture frogs beside a pond holding their annual pre-rainy-season convention.\u00a0 They do not see War. Huge tires of a camouflaged vehicle about to squash them flat.<\/em>\u00a0 The illustrations show a close-up painting of frogs on the left, with a photo of a rusty wheel on the right side, wadding up pages of peaceful villagers falling underneath it.<\/p>\n

The portrayal is not graphic, but symbolic, making it all the more striking.<\/p>\n

Don’t read this book to your child if you want to make apologies for War, if you want to explain about necessary evils.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, if you think you can use some convincing, or want to express an unambiguous idea to a child, this book makes a powerful and persuasive case for why War is never a good idea.\u00a0 The language is simple enough for a child, yet something that will linger in the mind of an adult.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.harpercollinschildrens.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on the main site at:<\/p>\n

www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Nonfiction\/why_war_is_never_a_good_idea.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Why War Is Never a Good Idea by Alice Walker, illustrations by Stefano Vitale HarperCollins, 2007.\u00a0 32 pages. Starred Review Though War has eyes Of its own & can see oil & Gas & mahogany trees & every shining thing Under The earth When it comes To nursing Mothers It is blind; Milk, especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,26,15,28,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-nonfiction-review","category-current-issues","category-picture-book-review","category-poetry","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}