A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope

In a war-torn, barbed wire-fenced landscape, a boy finds a seedling and cultivates it, attracting insects and birds, bringing joy to all.

When soldiers destroy it again, winter arrives, but the spring reveals wider spread shoots which bring hope to children on both sides of the fence.

A simple story with evocative illustrations in which colour emerges from the grey wash of initial despair. Foreman’s timeless text and illustrations perfectly convey the sad truth that conflict between peoples is an apparently never-ending story through the centuries.

Nevertheless Foreman also shows that the inevitable damage to people and property also results in an enduring and ever resurgent hope that life will return to normal and that peaceful coexistence will be possible.