The Treasure Box

Illustrated by:

"'When the enemy bombed the library, everything burned.' This is how Wild begins her rather dark tale of salvaging one important thing when everything else is broken or destroyed. A young boy's father had borrowed a book from that soon-to-be-burned library, and when the 'enemy' (never identified or hinted at) forces the people to leave their homes, the father chooses to take the book, sequestering it in an iron box. He tells the boy that the book is 'about our people, about us. It is rarer than rubies, more splendid than silver, greater than gold.; The father does not survive the arduous journey, and the boy buries the box with the book at the foot of a linden tree. Years later, he returns and retrieves the book and brings it back to the new library so that others can enjoy the 'treasure' his father tried so hard to save...This beautifully written and illustrated picture book is an excellent read-aloud and discussion starter for elementary school classes talking about war and the resilience of displaced peoples." - School Library Journal