Silver Donkey
Author(s): Sonya Hartnett
From extraordinary novelist Sonya Hartnett comes a gently told fable of a lost soldier, heroic children, and a steadfast donkey.
One morning in the woods of World War I France, two young sisters stumble upon an astonishing find -- a soldier, temporarily blinded by war, who has walked away from battle longing to see his gravely ill younger brother. Soon the care of the soldier becomes the girls' preoccupation, but it's not just the secret they share that emboldens them to steal food and other comforting items for the man. They are fascinated by what he holds in his hand -- a tiny silver donkey. As the girls and their brother devise a plan for the soldier's safe passage home, he repays them by telling four wondrous tales about the humble donkey -- from the legend of Bethlehem to a myth of India, from a story of rescue in war to a tale of family close to the soldier's heart. Sonya Hartnett explores rich new territory in this inspiring tale of kindness, loyalty, and courage.
Product Information
"Who's there?" cried the man, and then repeated it in a language that the sisters understood. "Qui est la? Who's there?"
He looked toward Marcelle and Coco and must have seen two skinny, flash-eyed little girls, wild as kittens born under stables, the taller dressed in her brother's hand-me-downs, the smaller rumpled as a street urchin - but then he looked to the moldery soil and up into the trees, and behind himself toward the distant sea. . . . He scrambled backward in the dirt, covering his knees in mud. "Who is there?" he asked again.
Marcelle and Coco stared. . . . "It's just us," said Marcelle. "No one else."
The man stopped scrabbling and became very still. . . . "I can't see you," he said nervously. "I'm blind. Who are you?"
. . . The girls, emboldened, peered more closely at their discovery, stepping from the shadows like fawns. They saw that the man had untidy brown hair and that his face was rather dirty. Coco, who had a sparrow's quick eyes, sawm
General Fields
- :
- : Candlewick Press (Ma)
- : Candlewick Press (Ma)
- : 0.454
- : 31 August 2006
- : 185mm X 160mm X 25mm
- : United States
- : books
Special Fields
- : Sonya Hartnett
- : Hardback
- : Don Powers
- : 823.3
- : 266
- : illustrations
