A Good Trade

Patkau (One Watermelon Seed) offers simple yet soulful digital collages that gracefully supplement Fullerton's (Libertad) understated storytelling in this book set in a Ugandan village. Nature plays an uplifting role: the opening spread reveals a single sunny poppy at close range, "white in a sea of green"; the early morning sky is ablaze with color; and cows graze peacefully. Yet the shadows cast by war, never mentioned explicitly, are dark: two rifle-wielding soldiers guard fields, and one child has a prosthetic leg. Upon returning from the village well, a boy named Kato peers into an aid worker's truck that is filled with brightly colored items--Kato knows what they are, but Patkau only gives readers a couple of clues. Kato clearly appreciates what he sees, and he plucks the white poppy to give to the aid worker, who distributes her cargo of new shoes to Kato and other ecstatic children. The double gesture of kindness--the good trade--projects a strong spirit of generosity and gratitude, traits as universal as the appeal of a gift of cool new sneakers. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)

Gr 1-3--Kato, a young Ugandan boy, serves his family by filling jerry cans with a day's worth of water each morning. His journey to the borehole takes him down hills, past cattle fields, and by soldiers standing guard. On this particular day, he pauses on his way back into town to peek inside an aid worker's truck and sees that it is filled with shoes. While finishing his chores, he finds a white poppy in the field and picks it for the aid worker who gives the village children new shoes, the "good trade" of the title. The illustrations are bright and geometric, computer-generated but quite textural, appearing almost mixed media. The large images are full of subtle details that show the lifestyle and daily activities common in the small, lush village. The text is spare and poetic and the pictures capture the tone and supply the bulk of the information. Young readers will enjoy this sweet day-in-the-life snapshot.--Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA