Abram's Book for Young Readers sent me a copy of this book for review (thank you). It has been published, so check with your local bookstore now.
While it sounds like make believe, this is a true incident during World War I. It's told from the perspective of a British soldier. The Allied Forces are on one side in trenches and the Germans are on the other. They've been trying to kill each other for days. Then it's Christmas Day and the German's have Christmas trees lit on the other side. A sudden peace takes over the land and all the soldiers find themselves mingling. They share goods, trade for items of interest, and enjoy trying to chat with each other. The commanding officer has a fit and makes them all go back to their trenches. He threatens them with court martial if they don't go back to shooting at each other. So both sides commence firing. However their guns are pointed at the stars above, not the soldiers.
The moment doesn't last and the war began in earnest the next day. But it let the soldiers know that each side was the same: young, unsure, cold and hungry and just plain human.
Here we are a hundred years later and we still are fighting wars. It seems we don't learn much from history. There are good and bad people all around the world but most are just humans trying to live their own lives. Wars don't solve differences; they just kill people. All I can do is pray for peace.
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