A thoughtful fable to read with your child.

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	• The Silver Donkey Sonya Hartnett Candlewick, 2006 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Beautifully Written and Full of Wonder!!!!

This book is beautifully written, whimsical, as well as touching and folorn. Children and adults will love to read this one aloud together. The author does a masterful job of creating a poignant and believable story told in a fable- or fairytale-like style. I highly recommend this book, and I would also recommend the hard-cover edition with the embossed silver donkey on the cover. It is lovely, well-crafted, and a joy to hold and read. I believe this edition best matches the style of the book. I am convinced you will want to read this one again and again. Happy Reading!

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A Golden Tale

Two sisters from a French seaside town find a drifting soldier during World War I. Marcelle and Coco are fascinated with the blind Englishman and his good luck charm, a little silver donkey. Lieutenant Shepard has wonderful stories to tell about heroic donkeys, and the girls hang on every tale. Soon, their brother finds out, and he gets a friend to help plan the soldier's way home across the Channel.

Knowing that the adults can never learn of the soldier's presence, the children take care of "their" soldier until he can leave. In return, they learn about courage and loyalty--lessons that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Sonya Hartnett has woven a charming story in the tradition of classic children's literature. Using gentle language, she relates the soldier's experience in ways that will leave no doubt that war is horrible, without scarring her young readers. The children are portrayed with a very real sense of wonderment, curiosity, and innocent sense of right and wrong.

Reading THE SILVER DONKEY evokes a feeling reminiscent of THE SECRET GARDEN and other such children's stories from the early 1900s. As time passes, Hartnett is sure to be as recognized as Burnett.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
11/08/2006

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A thoughtful fable to read with your child.

A few of us inaugurated a book club for 3rd grade girls with this story and it was a great start for us.

This story is beautifully written and has many layers, it was great for the adults and interesting enough for the girls, despite the backdrop of a war and subject matter that is difficult for young people to relate to: should you stay and fight in a war that has depleted you and made you question why you are there and hurt your psyche badly or go home to your family?

There were a lot of unanswered questions at the end of our discussion. Who did the donkey represent? Did Lieutenant get home? Was John real or made up? What significance was the beetle in the end?

Even though we didn't have clear answers, the girls were satisfied with the questions and were inspired to keep reading. All in all, a very good story to read with and explain to a child under 12. 13 and older can probably understand the subject matter and get more depth from it without a parent's input.

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Mostly satisfied...

The book arrived quickly and in good condition. However, there was no dust jacket and that minor fact was omitted in the description of the book...

A very sweet tale, but sad as well.

A very well written tale, I was first attracted to this book by is very classic looking cover. It has its own little built in ribbon bookmark, so it already is a very attractive book. The story, two little french girls find a blind english soilder who has had to leave the war. He is blind and trying to get home. At first he is just a fun secret for the little girls to have to themselves, though they are always trying to help him (their father's second best razor, alot of food from the pantry, etc)

He has one posession that, Coco, the younger of the two finds especially appealing, a very small silver donkey. Each day as the girls help him he tells them a story that involves a donkey essentially as the hero, each of them has a sort of bitter sweet twist to them (there are four total).

Its a very well written story, Hartnett's prose has a lyricalness to it and the illustrations on the inside are very fitting, they appear to be rendered in charcoal, so they are black and white, very sketchy looking. One is amazing, it is of the two sisters and their brother walking along the edge of a dock, all of them balancing with their arms out. The image is perfectly in time with the text.

This would be a good holiday gift to a child (no younger than 3rd grade I'd say, probably 5th)--as it does have some war time issues in it (WW2) I can see this as a Hallmark Holiday movie if they were so inclined, it has that sort of mood to it.

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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.

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