Customer Reviews
Cognitive Dissonance. 
2007-09-25
Ms. Walker is free today, rather then picking cotton. This did not happen with words or picture books. Liberty was won, as it always is, by the exertions of Orwell's "rough men". Hot lead and cold steel, not wishful thinking, ended American slavery.
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.-John Stuart Mill
Ms. Walker is well meaning, but that is no excuse. So was Neville Chamberlain.
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!- Patrick Henry.
Suffer the Children 
2007-09-25
I had the distinct pleasure of listening to the author read her book at Town Hall today. There's something added when an author reads her work; something more when she knows how to read well.
In a culture where the Martian god of war is worshipped, where we are told to be all we can be, to be strong, to be an army of one, this book is a helpful corrective. Again and again our culture teaches us from the yougest ages to resort to violence and war- it is the practical and reasonable solution. There is so little out there like Alice Walker's work, teaching the youngest that there is actually an alternative.
The poetry itself is moving and inspiring. It rolls off the tongue and enters the soul. And the pictures- they are exquisite. The jungle is shown in all of it's intense and multi-layered beauty. And equally so we are presented with vivid horrors of war. This is not imagery that will frighten little children or disgust adults, but rather something that shows war to be the ugliness it is, in a way even a little child can understand. And as long as we are called to be like little children, this is a book that even an adult can understand as well.
Also recommended How to Teach Peace to Children
Alice Walker Writes for All Ages 2007-09-20
On the surface this book appears to be for a child ... the illustrations are excellently executed and provide sub-text, but the theme is adult and universal and, given the sad state of global affairs, the pictures may be helpful for comprehension by even our governmental "leaders" and "war mongers." I recommend this highly for any age, gender, ethnicity, or social standing. Bravo! to Ms. Alice Walker.Why War Is Never a Good Idea
propaganda 2008-01-24
This is very sad. Teaching children that war is never a good idea is a very dangerous position to take; especially in this day and age. That's like telling them that people like Hitler are justified in their actions and no one should step in to help those in danger. War is certainly ugly, it is gut wrenching and painful, but it is sometimes very necessary.I am grateful for the men and women who voluntarily sacrifice their time (and lives at times)to protect me from the dangers out there. I would rather read my children a book about people who have the courage to face down evil for those who cannot defend themselves.
Beautiful and sobering 2008-01-12
This gorgeously illustrated book is beautiful in words and pictures, and wrenching. It is suitable for a wide range of audiences, from middle school children through adults, and from peace activists to soldiers. Every home should have a copy
Not nearly as good as I expected it to be 
2008-01-04
I enjoyed "There is a Flower...." but this book was a disappointment. I found the imagery and the language inelegant and unnecessarily harsh for small children. There are more effective ways to convey the message of peace and non-violence. I found it particularly disappointing to have come from such a talented author.
Richie's Picks: Why War is Never a Good Idea 2007-11-05
"And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates, well, there ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die"
-- Country Joe McDonald
"Though War speaks
Every language
It never knows
What to say
To frogs."
In her latest picture book, WAR IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA, Alice Walker personifies War, and through a series of verses she reveals the terrible costs and far reaching effects of War's behavior.
WAR IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA will undoubtedly be a very controversial book. I mean, it is one thing to argue over whether or not the war we are in right now is or ever was a good idea. But come on! If any of us were alive in America two hundred and thirty years ago, wouldn't we jump at the chance to get our hands on a muzzle-loading rifle and shoot a ball of lead through the facial features and cheekbone and into the brains of some British family's eighteen-year-old son? I don't care if you're male or female, when it came down to it and the rich white merchants and slave-owning planters had instigated a revolution, wouldn't you have been prepared and psyched to jam a bayonet through the clothing, skin, and stomach muscles, and then in through the vital organs of some teenage creep from across the ocean who was wearing the wrong color uniform?
"But if we didn't do it." students might argue in response, "We'd never have become free. We'd still be part of England now!"
And, responding back, I would offer to organize a debate on the subject after those students had taken the time to prepare by reading from a list of books about the ideas and politics and world events that led to the Revolutionary War such as Natalie Bober's COUNTDOWN TO INDEPENDENCE: A REVOLUTION OF IDEAS IN AMERICA AND HER AMERICAN COLONIES: 1760-1776, or Marc Aronson's THE REAL REVOLUTION: THE GLOBAL STORY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.
"It's always the old to lead us to the war
Always the young to fall" -- Phil Ochs
Thus, a discussion of WAR IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA is likely to involve students questioning whether certain wars were actually good wars based upon good ideas, and the teacher or parent who has got his or her act together will channel that inquiry into student research in preparation for waves of great group learning. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about the Revolutionary War or Little Big Horn or Hitler or Vietnam there are great books in print that will lead students to root causes and -- if we're lucky -- have students recognize that something happened before the war to cause it and something happened before that which lead to the causes which led to the war (See my recent review of PREVIOUSLY by Allan Ahlberg.), and that what is going on in the country and the world today -- this very day -- will either lead to a future war somewhere for some reason or will not lead there based upon the decisions of those who we have elected to public office. Higher order thinking is necessary for students to achieve understanding of this Big Picture -- the interrelatedness of events large and small -- and there are many of us who would argue that the development of that sort of thinking does not come about by "teaching to the test." And so this book might be additionally controversial because it could lead to debates over educational philosophies and whether or not we are at all preparing students to be problem solvers who can recognize and assess the Big Picture or are just creating human fodder for the next War.
"Though War has a mind of its own
War never knows
Who
It is going
To hit."
What should not be controversial about WAR IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA is the artwork by Stefano Vitale. In 1995, during my very first season as a Children's Buyer, I was (pardon the pun) blown away by Vitale's paintings that reillustrated Charlotte Zolotow's WHEN THE WIND STOPS, a picture book I'd first read as a young child. The paintings that he has done for WAR IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA are the best work I've seen of his, and I'm seriously thinking about reproducing the last painting -- a circle of faces peering down into a well that has been contaminated by War -- to make myself a custom teeshirt.
"Though War is Old
It has not
Become wise
It will not hesitate
To destroy
Things that
Do not
Belong to it
Things very
Much older
Than itself."
Oh...dear. I was just paging through again, feasting my eyes on those paintings, and I found this verse accompanied by a painting of ruins with a statue from which the head has been detached and the body of the statue has...err...breasts. So, I suppose the paintings are going to be controversial in some quarters as well.
"He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain,
a Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew
and he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will
kill you for me my friend and me for you" -- Donovan
You'd think that a Black woman like Alice Walker -- the Pulitzer prize-winning author of THE COLOR PURPLE would have at least thought that the Civil War was a good idea. But, then again, I expect she knows that if we had not fought the Revolutionary War and had remained part of England, then slavery would have been ended a generation earlier without a war, just as it did in England. Sound like a topic for debate?
"Though War has a mind of its own
War never knows
Who
It is going
To hit."
One of my biggest dreams has just come true for me. I am getting to develop and teach an online class in the spring through San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science on Picture Books for Older Readers. Thanks to Alice Walker and Stefano Vitale, I now have a book to share for my opening class meeting.
War isn't freeing us. 2007-10-27
Not surprisingly, a reviewer criticized Alice Walker for asserting that war is never a good idea. He suggested that she'd be "cotton pickin'" if not for war. Truth is, there is a lot of debate concerning what the Civil War was actually about, and what is accomplished A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom (A New Press People's History). Some felt it was a "rich man's war, and a poor man's battle." A battle that was followed by continued oppression of African Americans through bigotry, lynchings, Jim Crow laws, etc. - right up until today, where we find hundreds of thousands of African Americans in cages largely due to a war on non-corporate drugs Why Are So Many Black Men In Prison? A Comprehensive Account Of How And Why The Prison Industry Has Become A Predatory Entity In The Lives Of African-American Men; and the plantation owners simply outsourced their slaves to other parts of the globe Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. So, it can be debated how much freedom has been achieved, not just for blacks, but for humanity as a whole. While we may not have chains around our ankles, most of us spend our lives as what old-school Republicans would've called "wage slaves." Moreover, there is the compulsion that comes from modern economic feudalism, indebtedness, and a corporate media/PR industry that manages our perceptions of the world and manipulates our emotions Adbusters.
Obviously, World War I did not "end all wars."
Vietnam was a massive slaughter - with the butchery expanding into Laos and Cambodia.
Many would argue that World War II did not end fascism The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (The Political Economy of Human Rights - Volume I)
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II
In fact, the "land of the free" has military operations going on all over the world that the general public is completely unaware of; but that authors like Robert Kaplan are proud of (see Kaplan's "Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines, to Iraq and beyond"). This endless, global aggression has been decimating exactly the sort of wonderful communities that Walker's words and Stefano Vitale's illustrations pay tribute to.
While some find their identity and purpose (and financial gain) in war War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, many veterans have learned first-hand to hate war and want it abolished Howard Zinn on War.
Sadly, it appears that the war profiteers and those who subscribe to the dominator narrative will continue to bring us to armed conflict Why We Fight. In this current era of psychotic, industrialized violence, there are instances when armed resistance can be understood When the Mountains Tremble. Yet, even in those rare instances of a "just" war, it is still not a "good" thing, often proves counter-productive, and has negative ramifications (physical, psychic and environmental) for years to come.
To quote General Robert E. Lee:
"What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world."
