Belgium

Materials from Belgium

The Old Man

Day breaks over the town. Get up, everybody! It’s time to go to school. For the old man too, it’s time to wake up. The night was icy and he’s hungry. His name? He doesn’t know . . . This is the story of a person with no job, no family, no home, a nobody, who can’t even remember what he was once named. But his day changes when he is noticed by a child. Drawn in soft, watercolor pencil, this is an important story for our times. This gentle, compelling book will appeal to a child’s sense of justice and to every reader’s compassion.

Bunny The Brave War Horse

It is based on the true story of a police horse named Bunny and his riders, brothers Bud and Thomas Dundas, sent to the European front as part of the 9th Battery Canadian Field Artillery. This quietly but powerfully told tale explores many of the actual on-the-ground hardships WWI soldiers endured, including a gas attack, wounded and killed comrades, exploding bombs and episodes of severe hunger.

That’s Mine!

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the little frog finds an egg. “That’s mine!” he says. But the snake wants his egg, and so does the eagle and the lizard… But what does the angry elephant want? A simple picture book with a fun ending that never tires.

Applesauce

Johnny’s daddy has smooth cheeks, an apple in his throat and sounds like a mom when he sings in the bath. At other times a cactus grows out of his chin and his breath smells like cauliflower. At times he has warm hands and his fingers taste like applesauce. Other times his hands are cold and flash like lightning, and he becomes a thunder-daddy. When this happens Johnny wants to find a new daddy, but he eventually realizes that thunder-daddies don’t last forever. And that there’s nothing like the comfort that comes from those we love.Klaas Verplancke’s story, with its humorous, energetic and imaginative illustrations, will strike a chord with many young children and parents as they discover that love sometimes means setting limits, and that people do get angry, but that where there is love, it doesn’t last.

Featured in WOW Review Volume IX, Issue 4.