The evocative illustrations of Anna Pignataro in ‘Ships in the Field’
‘Gloriously illustrated with the delicate watercolours of Anna Pignataro’s brush, this beautifully written story has a lightness of touch but is a deeply moving honouring of family and difficult times past.
The main character is a young girl who lives with her mum and dad and small brown bear. She adores her parents, who we learn, emigrated from another country and have had to trade in their old professions for jobs sewing clothes and working in car factories: stories which resonate in Susanne’s and Anna’s family histories.
Small reminders of the old country stay with them; chicken soup, stories about the dog the girl’s mum left behind but also the creeping terror at night of a long finished war that never leaves them. We see images of fleeing refugees, of broken cities and villages, of ships carrying desperate people away.
There are so many layers to find in this story and its illustrations, so much to ponder and enjoy, as we look at one family’s escape from everything they have known to give their child a better life.’
Reviewed by Deborah Abela
http://blogs.abc.net.au/canberra/
‘Ships in the Field’ written by Susanne Gervay and illustrated by Anna Pignataro
(Ford Street Publishing)
Picture Book ages 7+ to all ages
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