The Harmonica product reviews

Sometimes books are less about the words and more about the pictures and the way they leap off the page to captivate the reader. This is a book with a story that is understated textually but which offers a wealth of information through the pictures. They are beautifully drawn, and the colours capture perfectly the nostalgia of what is effectively a war story.

The cover is the key to the narrative inside. It is drawn in shades of blue and grey, almost, but not quite, reminiscent of an old monochrome photograph. It portrays a young boy and a uniformed man, both playing harmonicas. They are surrounded by falling leaves and thistledown, but above the man's head is the image of a helicopter which appears to symbolise warfare and the fate that hangs over him.

The story is about three people from the same family - the child Carlos; his mother; and his mother's brother, his Uncle Jack. Their home is an old house in the country, a dwelling that has belonged to the family for a long time. This house holds a magical secret that Carlos discovers quite by chance. The story explores the way in which that secret affects mother and son in different ways, and shows how Carlos gradually gets to find out who his uncle was.

This is a story that adults as well as children can relate to because not only is it beautifully presented, but it tells the story on so many different levels. Children will see it as the story of a boy who discovers something, but adults will relate to the symbolism behind the find. And the strongest message is not spelled out in so many words but is implicit in the simple, poetic text and the hauntingly beautiful graphics. This is a book to be treasured, to be read and re-read by children lucky enough to own a copy.

The Harmonica by kiwi Dawn McMillian is a book that can be read on several levels. I read it to myself first and was close to tears thinking about what Uncle Jack and his harmonica had experienced during the war. Reading it with my seven year old for the first time, she knew Uncle Jack had played the harmonica when he was a soldier but didn't understand what the pictures story implied. Her little sister (Miss 6) didn't focus on Uncle Jack. To her the story was about an old harmonica that Carlos had found and was keeping hidden from his mum. This book however is just as much about the discussions we had that were triggered from reading it. For a start I had to explain what an attic was. We don't know anyone that has an attic. It also promoted me to tell them of some of our family's stories from the war as told to me by both those that fought and those that stayed at home.

Although this book is being released for ANZAC Day it is much more modern than that. Uncle Jack is wearing a modern New Zealand Army uniform. This implies that he was Mum's brother and served in one of our recent missions. The children noticed the kiwi emblem on his shoulder. Carlos is obviously a modern boy wearing a hoody.

It is a nice story for children. It doesn't show the weapons or violent side battle. Instead it focuses on being away from family. It also doesn't take the animal's perspective of conflict like several other ANZAC books have recently. Now that my children and I have had a lot out of this book I am going to donate it to the school library where I am sure the staff and students will have many interesting discussions from it.