The Good Son – A Story From the First World War, Told in Miniature
Story, Concept and Modelling by Pierre-Jacques Ober, Photography and Graphics by Jules Ober, Special Effects by Felicity Coonan.
Published by Candlewick Studio Imprint US and Walker Books Australia in May 2019.
Released in French translation by Seuil Jeunesse in October 2018 as Petit Soldat.
Awards
The Good Son has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year 2020. It has been awarded the NSW Premier’s History Award – Young People’s History Prize 2020. It has been awarded a gold medal by The Junior Library Guild of America. It is part of the Bank Street College of Education’s 2020 Best Children’s Books of the Year list for outstanding merit.
Petit Soldat has been awarded the 2019 Prix Sorcières for the most beautiful picture book in France.
Find out more on our dedicated website Little Soldier Stories
From the Book
Making Of
Jacqueline – Memoirs of Soldier’s Daughter
Based on the memoirs of Jacqueline Ober – the author’s mother.
Story and sets by Pierre-Jacques and images by Jules Ober
To be released by Seuil Jeunesse in May 2021.
For my beloved grandchildren.
I don’t have a fortune to leave you when I go. Only these stories – my childhood memories of the period they called the Second World War. A time when all the adults seemed to have gone crazy. When Papa wore the uniform and carried the gun, but Maman was the one, brave and fierce, who kept my world from falling apart.
You’ll learn why I hate clocks and cheese, why sheep give me nightmares and how sisters can come from the most unexpected places!”
The Story
Based on the memoirs of the author’s mother, this book tells the story of what happened to her between 1940 and 1945, when she was between 7 and 12 years old, in France, North Africa and Germany.
A story told from the point of view of a lonely little girl, a single child who dreams of having a little sister to keep her company. Despite putting on a brave face, this little girl is very scared when her parents need to leave her alone – to go to war, to scrounge for food, to find underground resistance fighters, to avoid patrols.
A story about childhood fears, needs and dreams. How children can be totally oblivious to the huge dramatic events they find themselves part of. How their vision and understanding of the world does not go far beyond their Mummy and Daddy, their teddy bear or the constant dream of a little sister.
Contrary to millions of unfortunate men, women and children who died during WW2, her story has a happy ending.
