One-two-three-- what are we fighting for? --two interesting picture books on the topic of war

The Enemy by Davide Cali with illustrations by Serge Bloch
The Buffalo Soldier by Sherry Garland with illustrations by Ronald Himler

These two books have nothing in common apart from their theme, but both are thought-provoking, and could be starters for a classroom discussion on the whole nature of war.

The Enemy, a sophisticated picture book by Davide Cali translated from French, is definitely asking ‘Why?’ Bloch’s illustrations depict two soldiers in foxholes, neither of whom has actually seen the other. All each knows is that the person in the other foxhole is his enemy, and that:

I can’t be the first one to stop the fighting, because he would kill me then. He has to be the first to cease.
If so, I wouldn’t kill him………
If he looked up at the stars he’d understand.
When you look at the stars you understand a lot of things.

Both are thinking the same thoughts; both are mulling over the propaganda that tells them the enemy is a monster, not to be approached or trusted in any way, not to be regarded as human. And both at the same time begin to think that this can’t be right. The book ends, tantalisingly, with their simultaneous decision to make friendly contact. We do not see the result.

The buffalo soldiers, celebrated in a famous Bob Marley song, certainly knew what they were fighting for. They wanted financial security, education, a stake in the country they had been brought to as slaves, and, above all, the respect and recognition that would take a long time to come their way. Sherry Garland’s book The Buffalo Soldier begins just after the American Civil War, when freed slaves were recruited by the U.S. army to protect the new tide of white settlers against the Native American tribes they were displacing on the Western Frontier.(They were given their nickname, a comment on both their bravery and their black curly hair, by the Cheyenne Indians they were fighting).

Their story is told from the point of view of an elderly ex-buffalo soldier, reminiscing over the letter he has just received from his grandson fighting in the Second World War. In between times the black soldiers have served in both the Spanish-American War and the First World War, but have remained in segregated regiments—it was not until the Korean War (1950-54) that segregation in the U.S. Army was done away with, and the ‘buffalo soldier’ regiments officially dissolved. Almost a century of courage and loyalty in battle, set against many appalling instances of racial prejudice from the people they were fighting for, had finally been rewarded.

With teacher guidance both these books could be used from about year 5 upwards, but would probably have most value at intermediate through high school level.

Reviewed by Cecily

The Buffalo Soldier is published by Pelican Publishing Company
The Enemy is published by Wilkins Farago