Customer Reviews

The Silent Witness

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This book takes one story of the Civil War and puts it into a child's perspective. If you are a civil war buff, this book is perfect to share with your child or grandchild. The story is very well written, from a child's viewpoint, and the pictures are delightful. I bought this for my friend to share with his young granddaughter and they both thoroughly enjoyed the book. It prompted her to ask Grandpa more questions about a subject he loves to talk about! The book arrived in excellent condition. I highly recommend this book for folks who enjoy stories of this era to share with a special child.

As an educator, I highly recommend this book because it is an age appropriate depiction of the effects of war on a very young child. It does not pretend to give an accurate description of the causes of the Civil War, nor is it meant to present picture perfect images of the players, events or artifacts - most children's book illustrations are not even close to accurate. This is the story of a family who tried unsuccessfully to flee warfare - the war broke out on their doorstep not once, but twice. First Wilmer McLean fled the Battle of Bull Run, finding safe haven many miles away in Appomattox Court House, only to have a battle break out there, 1/2 mile from his house, on the morning of the surrender. Historians have written extensively about the event..Wilmer McLean generously offered the family parlor to General Lee's aides as an appropriate place for General Grant to accept Lee's surrender, since the actual court house was closed for Palm Sunday. Little Lulu paid for that offer with her doll..which the soldiers cleverly dubbed "The Silent Witness." General Sheridan's aide, who "borrowed" the doll, brought it here to New York, and carefully preserved it until it was returned to the Appomattox in the early 1990s by the widow of the last surviving male Moore. I am also a free lance writer who writes extensively on antique and vintage dolls - and this is the story of a barely anthropomorphic rag doll that miraculously survived over 150 years BECAUSE it was a spoil of war. This is such a fascinating story that it is well worth the telling. We don't need to tell very young children that war, its causes and effects, are hell - they will have plenty of time in their lives to learn this, and about the horrors of slavery. This book is a gentle, age appropriate nudge toward those truths.

This book is beautiful, and a fantastic means of imparting history to our children. Most of my review, however is to counter Evil Kumquat's review.

The Silent Witness is not a book about slavery, it is a book about a doll, through which we learn the starting and ending land battles of The Civil War. It is not intended to be the only source of information concerning American History. Frankly, I was relieved to read something set in this period that didn't remind my elementary age kids about the horrors of slavery; they know plenty from every other book we've read. That's how history is learned well, piecing together information from "living books".

I'm not sure how the descriptions of General Lee and General Grant could be so offensive, except that EK was clearly looking for things to complain about, after being so offended by slavery not being the subject of the book. The descriptions were informative, and a great way for kids to envision the two very different men. I thought Grant's late arrival and dirty boots just showed he wasn't in a hurry, and he was a man who didn't mind getting dirty along with his soldiers. It seemed to me that Lee would have wanted to surrender with dignity, so he made sure he was clean and polished. If nothing else, it makes Lee look worse than Grant, with Lee looking so sharp and clean, while his soldiers are starving and without the proper clothes, boots, and equipment.

The rest of EK's comments don't relate to actually reviewing a book. EK has classified, "parent groups who crusade to get certain television shows cancelled because they are too stupid to simply turn off the offensive material when it airs." That's quite a blanket statement that shows EK is more than angry at a book about a doll. I will counter by saying that many people don't screen what their kids watch. Those children will certainly have to interact with the rest of society, and it would be a great thing if the unsupervised kids weren't exposed to pornography, violence, et al through programing that has crippling affects on our entire nation. At least, much more than a book about a doll that describes one man as possibly taller than he was in real life. Catching the irony?

I find myself very disturbed by "The Silent Witness: A True Story of the Civil War", by Robin Friedman and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola. This is a book my daughter brought home from school last term which tells the story of a little girl named Lula McLean, her beloved rag doll and their experiences living in Virginia during the Civil War. The climax of the story involves the house Lula's father, Wilmer McLean, purchased after the start of the war. This house, located in Appomattox Court House, hosted Lee's surrender to Grant. Lula's rag doll, left in the room where the surrender was signed, became a "Silent Witness" to the historical event.

The book starts with Lula living in Virginia, a slave state that seceded from the Union a few days after the Confederacy fired on our Fort Sumter. The illustration accompanying the text shows a vast, rolling plantation of wheat, corn and oats. What the illustration fails to show, however, are those doing the actual work making the grounds look so appealing. If one squints, a few little black human-shaped dots are in the fields, along with what could be a horsed overseer watching over them. In the foreground is little Lula, enjoying the bright, spring day while other little girls her age are living nearby, raised in bondage and in constant danger of being separated from their parents and sold at auction.

In fact, Friedman mentions slavery only once in "The Silent Witness", and without doing more than describing it as a "main disagreement" between the North and the South, with the former wanting to abolish it and the latter wanting to "preserve its way of life" (even if that way of life involved the brutal suppression of an entire race of people).

Eventually, after a battle occurred close enough that a cannonball hit their kitchen, Lula's father moved the family to Appomattox Court House, hoping that 150 miles was far enough from the war. In one illustration, Lula is shown decorating her new house for Christmas and HOLY COW THERE'S A SLAVE! Nivola actually dared to show one of the family's involuntary servants glumly pushing a broom outside of the room where Lula and her baby sister are enjoying themselves. This is the only time a slave is shown as more than just a tiny brown blob in the background.

The most egregious example of distorted writing (and illustrating) appears in this passage:

On April 9, 1865, Lula was playing with her rag doll in the parlor.
General Lee, towering at nearly six feet tall, arrived in a spotless uniform, sash, sword, and shined boots.
General Grant arrived half an hour later wearing a slouch hat, common soldier's coat, and muddy boots.
Lula fled the room, leaving her rag doll on the horsehair sofa.

Doesn't this just paint the prettiest picture of the noble (and tall) General Lee, punctual and with proper military bearing, showing due respect for the occasion by wearing full military dress appropriate to his position. Much better than that short slob, General Grant, who showed up late, wearing ratty "common" clothes and without even having the courtesy to wipe his feet before tracking grime all over the McLean's nice rug in the parlor.

The best part, though, is the accompanying illustration. The two generals are shaking hands and Lee is clearly a full head taller than Grant, whose eyes are level with the former's chest. Online research shows that Lee was indeed taller than Grant, with the Confederate general towering at a Goliath-like 5'10", and the Union general cowering at a dwarfish 5'8".

That's right. In real life, Lee was two inches taller than Grant. Some accounts put Lee's height at an even six feet, and if correct, would still not put him that much taller than Grant.

I must also add that the illustrator must not have done much research, because the doll she drew looks nothing like the one preserved in the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

I hope this criticism is viewed as more justified than those self-righteous parent groups who crusade to get certain television shows cancelled because they are too stupid to simply turn off the offensive material when it airs. This is a book marketed to children at an age when they are unlikely to understand what the Civil War was, let alone its causes. The worst bias is subtle bias, and "The Silent Witness" is full of it, all the worse for the age group it targets.

Frankly, I was so certain the author had to be from one of the Confederate states that it came as a shock to learn she was born in Israel and educated in New Jersey. I was even more surprised to read all the glowing reviews, including one by the New York Times, which described the tale as "thoughtful" and the illustrations conveying "the experience of living in a civil war with haunting power."

I was also amazed to discover no criticism of "The Silent Witness" anywhere online, and absolutely everything is available online when I put my mind to it.

Hopefully the above will be around the next time someone is disturbed by this book and wonders if anyone else felt the same way.