Where Poppies Grow: A World War I Companion - Hardcover

Granfield, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0773733191 ISBN 13: 9780773733190

Publisher: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2001

Synopsis

Finalist for the Silver Birch Award

Winner of the 2002 Information Book Award

When World War I began in 1914, no one knew that millions of young people would die in the agonizing years ahead. No one imagined the effect it would have on family life, or that whole villages would disappear, or that entire nations would be changed forever. They believed their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers would be home by Christmas. They were tragically mistaken.

With photos, memorabilia, and anecdotes, Linda Granfield brings us face-to-face with people from all walks of life who risked everything for their country. These painstakingly-gathered bits and pieces are remnants of conflict on a scale never before witnessed. Hastily-penned letters, notes written in code, and prayers for deliverance form an eloquent portrait of humanity, and a startling comment on the devastation of war.

About this title

About the Author

Linda Granfield is the author of 20 nonfiction titles including Where Poppies Grow, which was awarded the Children's Literature Roundtables of Canada Information Book Award and In Flanders Fields. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Reviews

Grade 4-7 A haunting, moving scrapbook of the Great War from a Canadian point of view. Each spread covers a topic such as trench warfare, daily life, or patriotism. The book is filled with black-and-white and color period photographs, pages from training manuals, ads, postcards, cartoons, paintings, propaganda, etc. Two sections offer personal information on soldiers-one who returned to Canada a broken man and one who didn't make it home. While there are better sources for report writers, this book will invite serious students and browsers alike; the horrors of the war are fully realized here. A compelling portfolio. -Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Where Poppies Grow: A World War I Companion by Linda Granfield illustrates the tragic era in scrapbook style. Throughout, vintage postcards (written by soldiers to their loved ones at home), photographs and memorabilia such as propaganda posters, books and "Infantry Training" cards that were inserted in cigarette packs share space with accessible and informative text. The title references a line from "In Flanders Fields," which Granfield calls "the most popular poem of the Great War."
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 6-10. A kind of WWI scrapbook, this picture book for older readers uses postcards, letters, cartoons, prints, photos, news clippings, and more to give an immediate sense of the wartime in Canada, the U.S., and Europe, as well as close-up views of what it was like for individual soldiers and their families. Each double-page spread focuses on one aspect of the war, from conditions in the trenches to the effect of the war on children. The design, with thick, quality paper and full-color illustrations, seems to invite browsing, but, unfortunately, there's just too much packed on the pages, including lengthy captions in tiny type. On the best spreads, the memorabilia make the history personal; for example, one spread focuses on the family of a soldier who didn't return; the next page is about a soldier who survived. Recommend this as a supplement to Granfield's In Flanders Fields (1996) and use it with the books in the Read-alikes column "The War to End All Wars" [BKL N 1 01]. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Fitzhenry and Whiteside
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773733191
• ISBN 13: 9780773733190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32