by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 15, 2010

A boy and his father visit "my grandfather's wall."

"On it are the names of those killed in a war, long ago."

Eve Bunting describes the details of the day - the bare trees behind them and dark  clouds overhead. The boy and his father are visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the ordinary sights make the day seem more real. The little boy describes the wall as black, and shiny like a mirror. "Flowers and other things have been laid against the wall."

The boy sees a rose, little flags, a teddy bear, and letters weighted with stones. Along the wall he sees a man with no legs in a wheelchair. The man is wearing an army uniform, which the boy describes as " a soldier's shirt".  The boy sees another woman with a man "as old as my grandfather would be," and both of them are crying.

"The Wall" tells a gentle story about a visit to the Wall, and it succeeds in simply explaining what the monument means. A short note at the end of the book explains additional details - that the wall holds 58,000 names, "and other names are constantly being added as the remains of those 'missing in action' are found." But the story conveys the same message, as seen through the eyes of a child. "The letters march side by side, like rows of soldiers."

Together they try to find the name of the boy's grandfather on the wall. The father finds the 1967 section. He starts reading out names - and then his fingers stop moving. "My grandpa?" the boy asks. His father nods. And his voice blurs.

"He was just my age when he was killed."

The father lifts up his son so he can touch the name on the wall. They do a pencil rubbing of the letters onto a piece of paper. The boy says the father has also rubbed parts of other soldiers' names. "You grandpa won't mind," the father says.

"They were probably friends of his anyway," the boy replies.

There's another grandfather bringing his son to the wall. And a schoolteacher is showing the wall to a classroom of girls. The illustrations by Ronald Himler show the emotions of the people, sometimes with just their faces and the way they hold their bodies. The boy's father "just stands there with his head bowed, and I stand beside him."

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