The Wall By: Eve Bunting

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade level: 3-5

BY Tiffany Carhart

 

            Do you really know what is like to lose a loved one? Okay so maybe you do, but do you know what it feels like to lose a loved one through war? Okay maybe you do, but do you know what it feels like to search for your loved ones name on a wall where everyone can see? Imagine the emotion. Imagine the struggle. Imagine the grief.

            Eve Bunting’s The Wall is based on the actual memorial wall devoted to soldiers who gave up their lives during the Vietnam War. This story is about a little boy and his father as they go visit the wall and find the boy’s grandfathers name on it. During their trip the boy realizes the importance of what his grandfather did and the honor it was to be placed on the wall. As the boy struggles through the brisk air he discovers what it means to respect and relate to, not only his grandfathers death, but the deaths and families of all the names on the wall.

            The illustrations in this book are very realistic and well done. The amount of emotion and mood the pictures create through their color and accuracy is unbelievable; you actually feel like you are the boy in the story. If you were to read this story without looking at the pictures, you would not get the same effect because, maybe, not a lot of people have been to the memorial wall or know what it represents and stands for. There was one set of pictures that show the wall as a whole going across the page in perspective, when you see this picture its hard to believe that all of that space is filled with the names of actual people who died. The illustration leads you into the emotion slowly by doing this because as the story goes on the illustrations slowly move towards that one name on the wall. As soon as you turn to the page where it amplifies the boy’s grandfather’s name, it hits you that there are people and families who belong to each name presented on this wall of honor.

 

Standards: 7.   Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting).

 

I would use this book in the classroom to teach students about how illustrations and the decisions made by the illustrator affect the mood and understanding of the story. How does the use of color enhance your meaning of the story? What can we learn from the boys experience at the wall? I would also use this book as an introduction to the Vietnam War. I would use this book as a tool for questioning and analyzing why soldiers are honored when they die for something. Are all people honored for dying for a cause?