In this moving picture book, award-winning collaborators Davide Cali and Serge Bloch present a fable for our time about two lonely soldiers facing each other across a barren battlefield. What each discovers, as the story unfolds, is that the enemy is not a faceless beast, but rather a real person with family, friends, and dreams. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In identical foxholes, two identical soldiers in khaki uniforms wait to destroy each other. "Every morning, I shoot at him. Then he shoots at me," says one. When he and his enemy both light fires or suffer in the rain, the speaker does not consider their shared hunger and misery. Instead, he consults a manual with a blood-red cover that pits him against "a wild beast... not a human being." When he desperately disguises himself as a shrub to ambush his foe, observant readers notice that a passing "lion" is his equally tired rival, going AWOL. Cali and Bloch (previously paired for I Can't Wait) establish an absurd waiting game worthy of Beckett. Bloch pairs pen-and-ink cartoons with collage elements like family photos, and gives readers a bird's-eye view from which to observe the men's similarities. The point will not be lost on readers. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information