Author: Barbara Emberley
Illustrator: Ed Emberley
Publisher and Year: Aladdin Paperbacks, 1967
Number of pages: 28
Genre: Realistic Fiction
This story is about a group of soldiers and officers working together to fire off a cannon during a war. Each officer who appears on the page has more injuries than the last, except for the general. After they finally get the cannon prepared, it goes off, and the final page shows the cannon, long since left in disuse and disrepair, covered in the flora and fauna of the area.
The narrative of this book is simplistic and rhyming, but it is the pictures that really tell the story. The author and illustrator wanted to convey the message that war was a hurtful and unnecessary thing, and they got that message across with the illustrations: by showing every officer except the highest-ranking, the general, with worse and worse wounds, and by showing the cannon on the last page, covered in flowers and bugs, to indicate it was no longer needed. This picture book functions as a window into the world of war for younger audiences, and allows conversation to start up about the necessity of war in our country and world. The illustrations of this book were created on woodcuts and have many chaotically arranged details.
