"Postcards From a War" is a real, impactful read, that can really hit you hard.
Emotional and impactful, I would suggest reading with your children.

Sadly no matter how I try this is not downloading for Australia and not via many options. I would have enjoyed not only reading but sharing with target age group as I feel it is a good subject and thing to share with younger people.

This was beautifully done! What a terrific way to introduce young people to the idea of war and the sacrifices so many brave people have done for our country and way of life.

Postcards From a War was such a beautiful read. It made me as an adult tear up, and I think it would be ideal for kids who have parents deployed or who just want to learn more about war and US history. I loved the attention to detail, the postcards that were included, and the grandfather's wisdom. "When I was young, people thought you needed to hide your feelings. Now, we all know it is better to let your feelings out." Highly recommend!

Thanks to VanitaBooks, LLC and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Really sweet little story about a child whose mother goes off to war and his grandfather shares his own story. When he was a child, his father was sent off during WWII, and sent back letters and postcards to the family to let them know that he was safe until he was able to come home. The child is comforted by this idea and hopes his own mom will write to him as well, which she does. The child and grandfather decide to place all the cards together to make a book, like a family treasury, which was a very sweet idea. I wish they would have included more postcards or letters. It was a bit too short and it would have been nice to have a little more story to read to feel more engaged with the characters.

I didn't actually read this book because I was not able to send it to my kindle,
so therefore I am not able to give feedback on this title.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

As someone who is fascinated by history, I enjoyed reading this book. Whether we like it or hate it, war will always be part of our culture, as well as part of world history. This book teaches children about war without being too violent or upsetting and I think that is important. Similar to Vanita Oelshclagaar's (sp?) about the Dust Bowl, this book doesn't have very eye-popping colors in the illustrations. This might make this book boring to some children. However, like the Dust Bowl book, this book also teaches children about important events in our history. And that is an extremely important fact. We will be less likely to repeat history if we learn from tragedies such as war. Yes, this is sad to think about, but it's also important to realize. If I had children, I would buy them this book for sure!

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While the concept is fantastic (a grandparent and their grandchild with a shared experience of parental deployment), and the choice of art is what drew my attention (it includes a mix of new illustrations and author's own family postcards from the 1940s), the book doesn't feel cohesive. The balance of art to text seems off, and bits of it feel aimed at a preschool audience, while others seem to be aimed at an audience closer to 7-10-years.

I read an eARC from NetGalley, and normally would assume that perhaps another round of editing would smooth out the audience issues. But this promotional copy was for a release (the book was originally published 15 years ago), so it's doubtful that any additional edits are planned.

A must read for families with children who are military families. This book is perfect to help guide a conversation as to why a parent or even an older sibling are gone for some time while serving in the military.

This was such an emotional read and perfect for those young readers who have a relative serving in a war. It was quite heartbreaking reading about these letters and the emotions these children go through. The illustrations in this were spectacular. While the story was very emotional, I still think it’s an informative read for younger readers.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with access to read this book!

"Like Natalie Cole sang a song with her father, Nat King Cole, years after his death, Vanita has written this book with her father's help 30 years after his death." These lines from the bio catched my attention and I'm glad I made a decision to pick up this book. Slightly heavy and gloomy but then again a book dealing with subject like war is sure to make us feel the weight of it.

Even then Vanita Oelschlager does it and so subtly that I'm amazed again. This book is for children who are needed to learn the hard truth about war and its ugliness. This book will help them in finding the light at the seemingly dead end tunnel. Done beautifully and in brownish hues, it has nostalgic feel of the olden war days, something that I haven't experienced personally but can imagine how it must have been for people who went through it. This book gives a ray of hope in a world full of hatred and cruelty.

Thank you Netgalley and Vanitabooks for the wonderful ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Postcards From a War is an impactful read with a more serious subject matter than most kids books. So this book may not be for everyone. Especially if they have a child that is more sensitive or upset regarding high risk careers. I found it to be an interesting story with visually stunning illustrations. I loved the juxtaposition between the images from the different time periods. I am also always a sucker for books with mixed media elements such as this. There is just something about stories that integrate postcards or letters thatmakes a story feel more personal and memerable.

"Postcards from a War" employs a poignant beauty of human cognition. The is narrated by Matthew Brian Jackson, a little boy whose mother works for the Air Force. After school, Matthew visits his grandfather, sharing his worries and perplexity over his mother's deployment to this conflict. His grandfather attempts to comfort him by giving a detailed account of his own experiences during World War II, including the letters and postcards that his father sent home. Vanita Oelschlager has beautifully captured the melancholy of separation. She has penned down parallels from her own reality. There's also inclusion of actual images, letters, and drawings from the author's father, Colonel Wilfred Bauknight, This makes this book particularly more vulnerable. Overall, this was exquisitely sentimental and beautiful.

Postcards From A War is a heart-warming read about how difficult separation can be for children who experience deployment from their loved ones.
Quite a thoughtful story and concept that provides some insight, while also feeling a little like balm, for youth who can’t quite grasp such a significant and oftentimes traumatic experience. Additionally, the illustrations were so very special.
Thanks to NetGalley and VanitaBooks, LLC for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

With a title like this and no reading of the summary this book could have been anything and have all kinds of readers while as such I did have a bit of high expectations. Anyway when the reader opens the book they are introduced to the narrator who is a small boy whose mother has gone off to war and thus he is being raised by his father during that time as well as by his grandfather.

One day Matthew tells his grandfather that he is sad and that encourages the grandparent to start into his own recollections when his own father, the boy's great-grandfather, was called to war. Although I am sure the boy must have had prior communications about the possibility of his mother not returning from the war I also thought it was a bit blunt that his grandfather would be straightforward to acknowledge that his own mother knew that sometimes men who would go to war wouldn't come back when the boy is seeking comfort.

The text itself is a bit of a mishmash since at times it seemed like very simple sentences were put together in a way that the reader is targeting really younger readers or at least trying to communicate the story through telegram (stop). At the same time the book has a bunch of text while some of the content may not be something that you want children to know about if they aren't having to face a parent who may not return from their job on a more heightened level than someone's parent or guardian who has a more high risk career.

The best part of the book was the illustration aspects since I really enjoyed the bright colors for the modern times and than the sepia coloring for the return in memories. To me it would have matched further if there had been actual postcards that we could read besides the really under-explained ones that were presented in the book from the author's father. But since it was only a few and then not even really used to tell a story I feel that the reader was cheated in this regard.

For those who need to have a way of connecting with a parent or other caretaker or even a family member that is far away the concept may be a great one but you can most definitely approach that connection without using this book.

**I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

This book was super emotional from the beginning, at least for me it was.

It’s about a young boy whose mother recently deployed.

His grandpa, whose dad served in WW2, was around the same age that he was when his dad deployed. He helps him work out his feelings and explains to him why she has gone away.

Postcards is intended for 4-8 year olds, ones who are old enough to understand that a parent in the military may have to go to a dangerous place, but maybe not why.
It shows the important intergenerational bonding that families often experience during times of war.

The postcards and letters in the book were received by the author from her father during World War II.

My daughter's dad was in the army for just under 10 years. During those times, he was deployed, one of them being while I was pregnant with my daughter.

The amount of unknowns, anxiousness experienced, but also love and support is like no other. The military community is wonderful and I’m so blessed that I’ve met some of my very best friends from it!

Not knowing why someone is doing something is one of the hardest parts.

I would always tell my daughter that her daddy was fighting hard for our country so that we can stay free and be safe from harms way.

This is a thoughtful story about how communication is so important between service personnel and their families. Postcards and letters sent during WWII were a wonderful counterpoint to emails and cell phone calls of current times as the story of military service in one family continued. The book art is reminiscent of the comic strips that were seen in the newspaper in decades past which lent the book a nostalgic quality along with the photographs in front.

A very simplistic and moving story about much more than War- the beautiful touches of family, the past, showing our feelings and not hiding them makes this a great book even if it's not entirely a relatable experience in the present for the little ears who are listening or reading it. Cute and thoughtful illustrations, I was delighted to receive a more detailed and thorough story than I'd originally anticipated.

The illustrations are simply out of the world! I would buy the book just to look at the beautiful pictures. The message - it was incredibly touching. It's never easy when a parent or someone you love has to go away, especially when they leave to fight in a war without any guarantee that they will come back alive. The father's urge to comfort his family when he must have been in a grave situation himself is soul-stirring. I deeply admire his strength and resilience. Next, the bond Brian and Matthew shares is so precious. My heart always melts to see young kids interact with their grandparents. The similarity in their situation brings comfort to both of them and Brian's faith in the new generation almost made me want to weep. But what's better than everything is that all the profit made from this book will directly go to a non-profit organization to support military families in their time of need. Isn't that great? So try to grab a copy of this book if you can. I bet you won't regret it.

Very lovely comic! Its very simple in concept and very lovely way to explain war and the seperation. Would definitely add to my classroom library!