Day My Father Became a Bush - Softcover

Leeuwen, Joke Van

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1877579165 ISBN 13: 9781877579165

Publisher: Gecko Press, 2013

Synopsis

Before he becomes a bush, Toda's father is a pastry chef. He gets up at the crack of dawn to bake twenty different sorts of pastries and three kinds of cake. Until, one day, everything changes. Fighting breaks out in the south and Toda's father has to go there to defend his country. Luckily he has a manual called 'What every soldier needs to know'. This tells him how to hide from the enemy by using branches and leaves to disguise himself as a bush. Toda remains in the city with her grandmother but even there it's no longer safe. She is sent to stay with her mother who lives across the border. Toda's journey is full of adventure and danger. But she doesn't give up. She has to find her mother.

About this title

About the Author

Joke van Leeuwen studied history at the University of Brussels, performs in cabaret and theatre shows, writes stories and poems for children--which she illustrates herself--and writes prose and poetry for adults. She has received innumerable awards, including the prestigious Theo Thijssen Prize, the triennial Dutch State Prize for youth literature.

From Booklist

Toda lives with her father above the bakery where he makes 20 different scrumptious pastries every morning. Her mother left a long time ago; she couldn’t cope. Toda’s father enlists to fight in the war in “the south” and leaves Toda with her Gran. When the bombing gets too close, her Gran sends her across the border to live with her mother. And so begins a strange, harrowing journey on buses through forests to welfare homes and agencies, attached to bitter strangers, themselves put upon by the strains of wartime, all in search of a mother she doesn’t know. Toda experiences her exodus with the struggles, hopes, and misunderstandings of a child, and van Leeuwen compounds this sense of confusion by omitting details about the setting. Warm, odd pen-and-ink sketches dot the narrative, adding to the childlike sensibility. By turns charming and disquieting, this challenging slip of a novel offers deep and genuine thoughts about the intersections of war and family. Grades 5-8. --Thom Barthelmess

Edition details

• Publisher: Gecko Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1877579165
• ISBN 13: 9781877579165
• Binding: Paperback