We Played Marbles

Seymour, Tres

ISBN 10: 0531330745 ISBN 13: 9780531330746

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1998

Synopsis

When friends playing on a Civil War battlefield begin to imitate what happened there, Papaw asks them to quit because he knows a better game

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

"We played marbles on our Papaw's farm,/ on the high dirt mounds of old Fort Craig/ left over from the Civil War,/ where hard, round Rebel bullets/ used to pass Union bullets in the air," says the narrator of this sophisticated anti-war book. Andreasen's evocative oil paintings convey a series of scenes of two boys playing while images of ghostly Civil War soldiers?like double-exposed negatives?are superimposed over the boys' activities. The narrator rides a pony where "Colonel Smith fell off his horse," and the boys make mud pies where "men in blue sat in the cold light/ in the morning river fog/ and ate a watchful, worried breakfast/ of old biscuits and warm water." When Papaw comes out to find the boys "play[ing] soldiers" with sticks, he pulls out a round Civil War bullet from his pocket and tells them he knows a better game: "So we played marbles," the narrator says. Andreasen's (Pioneer Girl) remarkable paintings are diffused with scumbled patches of light and haunted with blue-gray apparitions. But in spite of the success of the illustrations and an author's note at the end that explains the battle site, the poem's portentous and pontifical tone often seems as cloudy as the appearance of the mysterious soldiers. While the book may have some appeal to adults or be useful in classes for older children, young readers whose understanding of irony and history is limited will have difficulty comprehending quite literally just what exactly "old Fort Craig" is, why the soldiers even appear in the pictures and what the Grandfather's marble game signifies. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

0-531-33074-5 A narrative--strikingly similar to Eve Bunting's The Blue and the Gray (1996)--about two boys playing on a former Civil War battlefield; it is suffused with nostalgia and complete with a seed of truth, explained in an author's note. ``We played marbles on our Papaw's farm, on the high dirt mounds of old Fort Craig left over from the Civil War.'' The two boys, perhaps seven and nine, refer to historical events such as a colonel falling from a horse, which Andreasen depicts dreamily in a cloud formation. In a view of the pond, readers see the reflection of the soldiers who once fought there. Papaw gently leads the boys away from their war games, and back to shooting marbles--with an antique round bullet as the shooter. The text demands awareness of the war and will elicit questions, so adults who share the book with children may wish to come armed with even more information than is provided in Seymour's helpful note. (Picture book. 5-9) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0531330745
• ISBN 13: 9780531330746
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Andreasen Dan