The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Caldecott Honor Book)
By Peter Sis
Publication Date: August 21, 2007
ISBN: 9780374347017
The Wall is an autobiographical graphic novel/kids book about Peter Sis's life in Czechoslovakia during World War II. As a child, Peter loved to draw. As the book states, he drew shapes and people as a kid, and then tanks and wars as he got older, because that's what he was exposed to. The book follows his life from innocent child to Beatles obsessed teen who had to make his own instruments because real ones were banned. And all the while he drew, what he was allowed to in person, and what he wanted to in private. He kept drawing because it's what inspired him and what took him away from the life he was experiencing. The book ends epically on November 9th, with Peter imagining ways to get away and then realizing that he could as he watched the Berlin Wall fall.
This is the first book (that isn't a text book) that I read for grad school and I found it incredibly interesting. Peter Sis does an amazing job at telling his heartbreaking story of growing up in a war torn country. Each page is illustrated with large images and narrated with quick sentences here and there. Each one meaningful and descriptive. Sliced within the book are excerpts from his childhood journals. I loved this idea because it showed his innocence throughout the whole situation. While some entries dealt with his uncle being imprisoned, others discussed his desire to be in a rock band and move to London. Even though he was going through a war, he was still a child and then a teenager. The country couldn't take that away from him.
If you weren't reading the words, you'd think it was a normal kid's book. Peter Sis did an amazing job at illustrating the entire book, using hopeful and colorful images on some pages, and bleak black and white drawings on others to illuminate the difference between the real from what he, in his mind, wanted. What I found most haunting, and realistic about the images was the presence of pigs dressed as cops in every picture, showing how soldiers were always watching.
Two page specifically spoke to me. "Everyone wanted to draw. They painted a wall filled with their dreams..." the first page states. Above those words are pictures of people grafting the side of a building. The pictures are of suns and peace signs and guitars and flamingos. The next page shows the soldiers washing off the painting, and then the people re-painting it. Over and over, each strip repeats it. "...and repainted it again and again." They never gave up.
I thought this was a brilliant way to tell the story of his childhood. In the afterward, Peter states why he decided to create the book the way he did. After his children asked "How did you decide to settle here in America?" he decided to tell them through the book. "...it's hard to put it into words," he states, "and since I have always drawn everything, I have tried to draw my life-before America-for them. Any resemblance to the story in this book is intentional."
Read a discussion on the book from the New York Times
Read a clip of it, see some illustrations, and hear a reading at the Macmillan site
3 comments:
Oooh I read one review about it which indeed using the sentence "grim version of children's book" to describe this book. So intriguing!
Fascinating, and what a wonderful perspective! We can only imagine what it was like to grow up under those circumstances. My husband grew up in communist Poland and has a tremendous amount of baggage when it comes to Russians and Germans. As a kid, I was scared of the thingy under the bed, he was scared of war. How sad is that?
This sounds like a really interesting read. Certainly a different way to tell a story of childhood. I love people who can draw. I've always wanted to be able to but never could. I really admire artists who can draw and paint, especially when there's a story hidden behind it. :)
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