I Saw A Beautiful Woodpecker: The Diary of a Young Boy at the Outbreak World War II

- Blurb -

This award-winning children' s book is one eight-year-old Polish boy' s evocative diary of the summer of 1939 when World War Two was tragically approaching his country. It is the summer of 1939 in Warsaw, Poland and Michal is an eight- year-old boy just finishing his school year. In order to improve his handwriting, Michal' s teacher gives him a simple assignment: keep a journal, writing one sentence a day. Eighty years later, Michal' s diary has been gorgeously illustrated with beautifully atmospheric paintings. Eloquent in its simplicity, the journal is a remarkable artifact that captures the innocence of childhood and the trauma of war. The journal starts out with a typical boy' s observations: "July 15: I went to a stream with my brother and teacher. " "July 23: I found a caterpillar. " However over the course of weeks, menacing details emerge. "July 27: A plane was circling over Anin. " "September 1: The war has begun. " "September 3: I hid from planes. " "September 14: Warsaw is bravely defending itself. " These haunting entries are interspersed with visits from relatives, a soccer game, a trip to a park, an ice cream cone. Photographs of pages from Michal' s diary enhance the poignancy of this simple record - an ordinary holiday interrupted by war; a life changed forever by an extraordinary moment in history. AGES: 7 plus AUTHOR: Michal Skibinski was 8 years old and a schoolboy at Warsaw Primary school when he wrote this diary in the summer 1939. Today he lives in a retirement house for elderly priests. Ala Bankroft is a painter, photographer and film animator living in Warsaw, Poland.