This book, based on a real event, breaks your heart.
And since it is based on WWI, where Veteran's Day began, it seemed fitting for today.
Created with hobby store miniatures arranged into WWI sets and then photographed, it doesn't sound like the kind of book that would move you to tears.
But it does.
The book opens with a French soldier, Pierre, awaiting sentencing for desertion.
His solitary meal.
Waiting.... hoping there will be leniency since he came back of his own accord....
He thinks back to the beginning of this war.
It was meant to be over soon. And as they walked across the French countryside in spring, it didn't seem like too much.
(I like this plane)
But then the war dragged on. And there were horrors that young men had not been able to imagine when they headed out.
There was so much this young soldier wanted to do with his life. Things he would never get to do if he was condemned to death by his own army.
And then the lieutenant lets him know that nameless higher-ups had decided he had to be made an example of. They didn't necessary think he was horrible and deserved to die, but he had left for a few days and even though he came back to finish his job, they were too worried other soldiers would try to take leave. So it was death for Pierre. Death so the army could terrify other men into not leaving.
As he waits for his execution at dawn, he writes to his mother. And then you find out more about his desertion. He had promised his widowed mother that he would be home for Christmas. Since everyone said the war would be done by then.
Not wanting to break his promise, even though the war was not done by Christmas, he went home, spent two days with his mother and came back.
On his travels, he met the enemy--the young Germans the French were fighting against. He learned that they were tired and homesick too.
And all the savagery of that war was more than most young men could bear.
The ruination of human life, of spring, and of the countryside.
Writing to his chere maman on his last night on earth.
"I didn't want you to be alone for Christmas and now I am leaving you alone forever."
He remembers Christmas with her. "The best two days of the war."
And then the morning came. "I will wear your new socks tomorrow. You'll keep me warm, Maman."
The war would eventually be over and won.... But not by Christmas. And not by Pierre.
Oh my, This book just broke my heart. Trying to be a good son and good soldier and apparently failing at both and dying because of it just so a heartless official could make an example of him to keep demoralized soldiers from heading home.
It is such a powerful book to talk about the sacrifices made by soldiers. Definitely for older readers though....
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