"Though War has a mind of its own / War never knows / Who / It is going / To hit," writes Alice Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for The Color Purple. This compelling children's book is recommended for all ages, except the very young. Perhaps it can serve as a counterpoint to the constant media attention promoting war as the way to freedom. In history books, children learn to see military leaders as victors and heroes. Almost nothing is said about peacemakers and those who follow their consciences by declaring all wars as immoral and insane.
Thank God for books like this one that expose the random violence of war: "War has bad manners / War eats everything / In its path." This book shows the ways it destroys human beings, homes, villages, animals, and the natural world. War is not pretty, and it is not redemptive. Walker's poetry sears the soul and the evocative paintings of Stefano Vitale add further emphasis to the anti-war messages of the book.
