CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES
by John McCutcheon & illustrated by Henri Sørensen
Folksinger McCutcheon has adapted his original song about the Christmas Truce of 1914 as the text for this touching story about WWI. The first spread shows an elderly grandfather named Francis with his grandson and granddaughter, recounting his favorite Christmas for them, when he was a young soldier in the Great War. On the next spread, the scene shifts to a montage of warfare scenes in sepia tones, like an old photograph. The narrator describes the bored soldiers in the trenches on that Christmas Eve, and their surprise as they heard German voices singing Christmas carols. The English soldiers joined in on “Silent Night,” leading a German soldier to cross No Man’s Land with a white flag and a Christmas tree. The two sides called a temporary, informal truce and spent that entire Christmas Eve in that truce. Sørensen’s atmospheric oil paintings bring the miraculous night of peace to life with a wide, double-page spread that allows room to show many soldiers at once as well as the expanse of the battlefield. (author’s note, historical note, music notation, CD) (Fiction. 7-18)