In 1916, with World War I at a stalemate in Europe, ten-year-old Aileen Rogers and her new teddy bear named Teddy are traveling home in their sleigh to their farm in East Farnham, Quebec. Teddy notices that Aileen is wearing a metal brace on her leg and limps. She reveals to Teddy that she had polio and now has to wear a brace to support her weakened leg. This means she can't run and jump like the other children. Teddy tells her that this doesn't matter to him. Aileen's younger brother Howard thinks Teddy is rather small, but her father points out that "Sometimes the smallest ones have the biggest hearts..."There are plenty of chores to do both in the house and on the farm. Aileen and Teddy set the table and after dinner wash the dishes. Afterwards, Aileen and her mother help in the barn, feeding the horses hay and oats. Aileen tells Teddy about the war explaining that war happens "when people from one country fight people from another country." That night as her father reads stories about the war in the Montreal Gazette he is worried.
The morning is filled with more chores, which Aileen does with Teddy "snug in the pocket of Aileen's coat." That afternoon they return to town to attend church. In town they see recruiting posters for the war. There are few men at church as most of them are off fighting in Europe.
One night Aileen's life changes forever when her father tells her that he has enlisted to go fight in the war. Although Aileen is proud of her father, she tells Teddy that she wishes he could stay at home.Aileen's father travels to Valcartier where he trains to be a soldier. Aileen along with her mother, brother and Teddy travel to visit her father at Valcartier.
Aileen's father's letters eventually reveal that he has sailed to England on the RMS Hesperian. After time in England, her father is eventually sent to Belgium. After much consideration, Aileen decides to send her most prized possession, Teddy to her father, "...to remind him of home and to keep him safe." Sadly, although Teddy would return home, Aileen's father did not. Teddy would see all that the war would involve and Aileen's father's heroic efforts to help the soldiers as a medic. He was recovered from a pocket in her father's uniform and sent home.
Discussion
A Bear In War is a truly a deeply moving and endearing picture book. Although the story is based on real events about a young girl losing her father in the Battle of Passchendaele in the fall of 1917, it also a story about love and sacrifice.
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| Aileen Rogers' Teddy |
The authors tell Aileen's family story from the point of view of Teddy, Aileen's new teddy bear. Teddy is kind and loyal. Aileen and Teddy's relationship is at once sweet and tender. She tells Teddy her secrets, the first being that she has had polio and has to wear a leg brace. Teddy responds, "That makes no difference to me."
Teddy immediately fits into the Rogers family, accompanying Aileen as she helps with dinner and chores on the farm. Like Aileen, Teddy doesn't like war and he misses Daddy. Eventually after her father goes to war, Aileen and Teddy come up with the idea to send him to war as well, in the hopes that Teddy can protect her father. Teddy and Aileen who have been a comfort to one another during this difficult time, decide to make their own sacrifice and send him overseas to France. During his time at war, Teddy tells young readers a bit about what it was like for soldiers during World War I. "A lot of the time we sat in deep trenches. They were wet and cold -- and there were rats everywhere. But the trenches helped protect us from bullets and bombs....Sometimes we got hurt when a bomb exploded nearby. Sharp things would hit us." Sadly Aileen's father does not survive and is killed while treating soldiers during the Battle of Passchendaele. Teddy survives the war and eventually is returned to the Rogers family. His own secret is "that I fought in the war in the pocket of a hero."
A Bear In War captures the uncertainty, fear and loss experienced by the families of soldiers during the long years of the Great War - a war that was supposed to end war but ended up being a continuous blood bath. Aileen's story is very much enhanced by Brian Deine's oil painting illustrations done in soft tones that accent the warmth of Aileen and Teddy's friendship, and how friendship can help carry us through tough times.
A Bear In War is an excellent picture book that offers children a gentle introduction what life was like during the early part of the 20th century, about how families coped during wartime and what life as a soldier was like. Teddy is the teddy bear we all imagined having when we were children.
Teddy image: https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/objects-and-photos/art-and-culture/toys-and-models/teddy-bear/
Book Details:
A Bear In War by Stephanie Innes and Harry Endrulat
Toronto: Key Porter Books Limited 2008
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