Fleming, Candace. Boxes for Katje. Illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. ISBN: 0-374-30922-1
Author Website: http://www.candacefleming.com/
Illustrator Website: None
Media: Colored Pencil, Oil Pastel and Acrylic Paint.
Use of Rhyme: (p. 15) “sweet beat.”
Use of Metaphor: (p. 16) “They have five children who are skin and bone.”
Use of Alliteration: (p. 24) “tulip bulbs buried beneath the snow.”
Use of Repetition: (multiple pages) “There is plenty to share,” Katje says after every package delivery.
Special Notations: 2009 Students’ List.
Detailed Artwork Discussion: Stacey Dressen-McQueen used a combination of colored pencils and oil pastel and acrylic paints to illustrate Boxes for Katje. Every page of the story features multiple patterns reminiscent of fabrics and wallpapers popular during the 1930’s and 9140’s in Holland. The illustrations contain a great deal of movement and drawings of people are frequently superimposed on backgrounds of gardens, snow, cobblestone and grass. The drawings are rich in details; heads of lettuce growing in a garden are painted with depth and dimension, emphasizing the layers of leaves (p. 13). People “move” with exaggerated motions, adding even more movement to the drawings. When the postman delivers a box, his leg is drawn lifting way up in the air, giving him a jaunty gait, obvious from just one drawing (p. 18). Katje’s family and friends’ joy upon opening the boxes from America is made obvious by the scattered placement of the objects in the illustrations. By looking at Dressen-McQueen’s haphazard location of teddy bears, chocolate bars, socks and coats, the reader senses that Katje might have joyfully flung each object out of the box as she opened it. Vibrant coloring paints a picture of the village of Olst that is endearing and optimistic. Dressen-McQueen’s style of folk art using mixed media is lively and more than competently conveys the emotions of Fleming’s characters in this story.
Curricular Connection: English-Language Arts/Writing, History/Social Science, Grade 5, Students connect social studies through literature analysis.
Annotation: An aid organization in the United States connects a girl from Indiana with a young girl in Holland after World War II. Care packages from Rosie to Katje provide nourishment, clothing and joy for Katje and her friends and family.
Personal Reaction: Boxes for Katje is a deceptively simple picture book loaded with meaning and lessons about caring and helping. The story is based on the similar real life experience of author Fleming’s mother just after World War II. Fleming’s spin on the story features a young Indiana girl named Rosie who makes a connection with a young girl named Katje in Holland via an American aid organization. Katje’s village is suffering from food and supply shortages after the war and Rosie sends Katje a care package. Katje generously shares the contents of the package with the postal carrier and her family. The girls strike up a correspondence and Rosie sends more care packages. While the text is brief, it suggests much about the devastation of war, the impact on resources, the necessary rebuilding after war and human kindness. This story would be a nice introduction for students studying the impact of World War II on the home front in the U.S. or for students working on compare and contract writing skills. The lives of Rosie and Katje are well suited for a comparison assignment. Social studies students might also examine the role of aid organizations during and after wars.
