"The Enemy: A Book About Peace" by Davide Cali, Illustrated by Serge Bloch

Image Courtesy of: http://www.preboundbooks.com/ws/image/cover/33173/m

Bibliographic Citation

Title: The Enemy: A Book about Peace

Author: Davide Cali

Illustrator: Serge Bloch

Year of Publication: 2009

Publisher City: New York

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade Books

ISBN: 9780375845000

Author Website: http://www.davidecali.com/calilibri.htm

Illustrator Website: http://www.sergebloch.net/

Media Used for Artwork: Ink and Photography

2009 Students’ List

Awards

·         United States Board on Books for Young People’s List of Outstanding International Books, 2010

·         Kid's Indie Next List "Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers", 2009

·         NCSS/CBC Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies, 2010

Annotation

Two enemies wait in two holes during a war, and one narrates.  At the beginning the soldier knows what he must do, kill his enemy.  But as time passes he begins to wonder if the war worth it.

Personal Reaction

                A complicated story told in a simple way.  The words and illustrations are minimalist but that makes the message of the story all that more powerful.  A mixture of photography and simplistic figures makes up the illustrations.  Many of the pages are filled with white, so the focus is on the soldier in his hole.  The world around him has disappeared because his focus is war.

The soldier who narrates (one can even argue that both soldiers are narrating, there is honestly no way of telling in the voices or the illustrations) knows nothing about his enemy, which is portrayed quite effectively.  He is an unreliable narrator because of the fact that he bases his hatred of the unknown enemy on what he has been told.  And at first it is fine but as time passes the soldier begins to wonder about why the two sides are fighting.

                Even though this story is very serious the author still adds some humor that helps to lighten what could be a very dark subject.  For example, once the soldier decides to attack his enemy he puts on his disguise of leaves and crawls to the other hole.  He states, “I put on Disguise Number Three-the bush- and leave” and there is the illustration of him doing so.  It seems so silly and absurd, yet for him it is logical.

                As a group, readers can discuss how the two enemies are in fact very similar and are most likely both narrating the story.  If one side wonders why there is a war, then the other must as well.  Yet there is the wonder if they will stop fighting.  There could be much debate about whether both bottles have letters asking to stop the fighting.  And hopefully there will be the same hope as the soldiers in the picture book.