Author: Patricia Polacco
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reviewer: Christi
Summary: A
fifteen-year-old soldier in World War II meets a sweet young girl in the
Philippines who helps him remember what he is fighting for as he helps her and
others of her village avoid starvation, and many years later she returns his
kindness.
Review: Get out the Kleenex. This story will inspire you to always
keep your heart open because sometimes the smallest thing will remind you why
you’re here. The author did an amazing job of telling one soldiers
story.
Johnnie is a 15 year old boy from Kentucky that’s fighting in World War II in the jungle. As he fights to not let the
despair of that get to him he has to deal with the day to day troubles- like
the fact that the ground is damp and mushy and the soldiers feet are never dry, he’s
exhausted, and worst of all is the bugs (the size of your
hand) stinging him and covering him in welts. One day he turns around and finds
a little girl staring at him. Johnnie drank her in because looking at that
innocent tiny girl gave him a peace he hadn’t felt in a long time. She picked a
plant and showed him how to help his bug bites with the goo from the plant. He
tried to tell her his name “Kentucky Jo” that’s what the other soldiers called
him. She couldn’t speak his language so when he saw the heart shaped birthmark on her arm
he named her “Little Heart”. When she finally tried to say his name it came out
like “Tucky Jo”. He whittled her a doll and tried brighten up her and his life by
watching her smile. He would bring her food for her village from his k rations. He even
helped her village get food from the river. Eventually it was time to go home
and for years he wondered about Little Heart. As he got older his eyesight and
hearing were almost gone and he couldn’t afford to fix it. One day at the
Veterans hospital he came across a new nurse. She told him that she’d had a
meeting with specialist and they would take his case for free and get him the
expensive medicine he needed. When he asked why are doing this for me she
showed him her little heart birthmark and said I’m going to take care of you
like you did for me so long ago. She had looked for him too
for years in hope she could thank him for his kindness. This would be a
great read aloud to a class learning about the war or even as a gift to a
military family. A must read!
No comments:
Post a Comment