Description

In this picture book about a war-torn city, a little girl struggles with many emotions. Her father is away fighting. There is no heating oil, and food is scarce. Bombs have devastated the neighborhood, so she and her friends must work out their anxieties and fears indoors.

Mr. O, the famous musician who lives upstairs, gets angry at them for their noisy hallway games. "You kids!" he shouts, as if just being a kid was a bad thing.

But when a rocket destroys the relief truck that brings their meager rations, Mr. O surprises them all. He takes his cello into the middle of the square -- where he can be seen by everyone, even by the attackers who blew up the supply truck -- and he plays. And through his music, the little girl learns that courage can sustain the soul just as bread sustains the body.

In glowing watercolors, Greg Couch beautifully captures Jane Cutler's stirring message about the resilience of the human spirit.