Once a Shepherd - Hardcover

Millard, Glenda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763674583 ISBN 13: 9780763674588

Publisher: Candlewick, 2014

Synopsis

In poignant verse, the story of one young shepherd makes the experience of soldiers in World War I accessible to children.

Once there sang a carefree shepherd
In a field of emerald green . . .
Once his world was all at peace.

Here is the tale of Tom Shepherd, tending his lambs and shearing their fleece and wooing his sweetheart, who weaves the sheep’s wool to make him a coat. But then the Great War comes, and Tom must leave his beloved wife and his unborn child and go off to fight. In a moving, sobering story that resolves in a heartbreaking but beautiful ending, Once a Shepherd evokes the reality of war in a way young children can understand, while fostering a deep-felt hope for peace.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Gr 3 Up—"Once there was a carefree shepherd in a field of emerald green. He lullabied his cloud white lambs and gentlied off their fleece. Once Tom's world was all at peace." So begins this lyrical tale of young Tom Shepherd and his bride. From the start, Millard conveys a sense of foreboding that their idyllic world will not last. Tom must leave his pregnant wife and head off to fight in what appears (from the uniforms) to be World War I. "He wept ten thousand footsteps while a million raindrops fell. Once he marched right into hell." Tom dies when he kneels to help an enemy, and that man later seeks out Tom's wife to tell her of his heroism. The book ends with Tom's wife having fashioned a toy for her son from his father's greatcoat—and again the world is at peace. This story has the potential to be maudlin, but the skillfull writing and carefully constructed watercolors richly transform it. Even the scenes of war have a gentleness about them, as one wounded soldier assists another. Perhaps not a book to be placed in the general picture book collection, any more than Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say (Philomel, 1994) is kindergarten fodder, it is one worthy of purchase where stories of war and moving on are needed. Best used in situations where follow-up discussion is a possibility.—Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ

Review:

Millard and Lesnie, Australians, present a picture book about the Great War with beautiful, green-dominated watercolors and a spare text with occasional end rhymes. ... It is done with truth and tenderness. ... Taken together, the folkloric simplicity of the text and the quiet beauty of the illustrations pack a powerful punch for those families that want—or need—to confront wartime violence with their little ones.
—Kirkus Reviews

Lyrical... This story has the potential to be maudlin, but the skillfull writing and carefully constructed watercolors richly transform it. ... It is one worthy of purchase where stories of war and moving on are needed.
—School Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0763674583
• ISBN 13: 9780763674588
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Lesnie Phil