Day My Father Became a Bush

Starred review from December 15, 2013
Welcome to the world of ethnic warfare, from the dinner table to the battle lines, full of haunted landscapes and social relationships--and you are a young girl. The story involves a girl, the narrator, who is forced to flee her village as civil war ravages her unnamed country, one of those endlessly grinding tank wars, fueled by animosities stretching back 600 years but as fresh as today's daisies in the combatants' noses. Her father, a pastry chef, has joined his neighbors: "He had to go and help defend one side against the other even though he had friends who were on the other side." The language is smart, innocent and full of surprising--but age-fitting--turns of phrase. The girl is sent to live with her estranged mother, across the border. On her way there, much on foot, often through dark forest, she meets a cast of characters who mirror all the bickering that's tearing the country apart. The text makes all her emotions palpable ("My stomach was full of homesickness. There was no room for anything else"), fear above all, but it never overwhelms her, instead releasing sudden survival instincts that get her through. A brilliant, eerily engrossing evocation of war as it brushes up against youth--a harsh slice of the world during a mean piece of history. (Fiction. 9 & up)

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November 1, 2013

Gr 4-7-Toda lives in an unspecified country in which the northern and southern sections are at war. Her father has left his job as a pastry chef to serve as a soldier. He explains to her that he will "disguise himself as a bush" to hide from the enemy. The child is left with her grandmother until the area becomes too dangerous and she is sent to live with her mother across the border. As Toda undertakes the precarious journey to safety, she encounters people and situations she describes from her innocent, childlike perspective. When she finally arrives beyond the border, she is questioned by a man asking, "How did you get across the border?" "I don't know," answers Toda, "because I didn't see where it was." The contrast between the adults and Toda's innocence adds humor to the story line and points out the absurdity of war and its processes in general. The black-and-white drawings interspersed throughout further emphasize the droll humor. This would be a useful supplement to foster understanding of the refugee experience. It also makes a simple yet strong statement advocating peace and could precipitate discussions on many relevant issues in today's world. Suggest this one to readers who have shown interest in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Random, 2006).-D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2013
Grades 5-8 Toda lives with her father above the bakery where he makes 20 different scrumptious pastries every morning. Her mother left a long time ago; she couldn't cope. Toda's father enlists to fight in the war in the south and leaves Toda with her Gran. When the bombing gets too close, her Gran sends her across the border to live with her mother. And so begins a strange, harrowing journey on buses through forests to welfare homes and agencies, attached to bitter strangers, themselves put upon by the strains of wartime, all in search of a mother she doesn't know. Toda experiences her exodus with the struggles, hopes, and misunderstandings of a child, and van Leeuwen compounds this sense of confusion by omitting details about the setting. Warm, odd pen-and-ink sketches dot the narrative, adding to the childlike sensibility. By turns charming and disquieting, this challenging slip of a novel offers deep and genuine thoughts about the intersections of war and family.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)