The three Lucys

Lebanon, bombing, leaving pets behind for weeks, terror, destruction, and the loss of one of the cats. GRIM.

Based upon events in his own family's life, Lebanese-American author Hayan Charara addresses the devastation that war causes in this, his debut picture-book. Living in a small town in southern Lebanon, Luli loved his home, his school, and his three cats: Fat Lucy, Skinny Lucy and Lucy Lucy. When he

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and his parents went to Beruit for a week to visit his Aunt Layla and Uncle Adel, he left plenty of food and water out, never suspecting just how long it would be until he could return. Sadly, the 2006 July War (known outside of Lebanon as the 2006 Lebanon War) was about to start, and Luli and his parents found themselves unable to return to their home for over a month, as the area was being bombed by Israel. As he sheltered in his aunt and uncle's basement, Luli thought of the three Lucys, constantly worried for their safety. When he finally did return, it was to discover that one of the Lucys had disappeared, never to return...

I found reading The Three Lucys an almost unbearably painful experience, no doubt at least partially because one of my cats, shy but loving Emmie, was being determinedly affectionate to me as I was perusing the book. Sensing that I was becoming distressed - the sniffling no doubt gave it away - she became ever more determined to rub herself all over me, and to give me her loving little licks. This, of course, only made me sniffle more, as I imagined how it would feel to leave home one day, fully intending to come back to her, and to my other cats, only to discover that I couldn't. The story here is pitch perfect, exploring serious real-world issues from a child's perspective. There is a sense of the more complicated grownup world in the background, but Luli has his own concerns, and so do the three Lucys. At one point, early on in the book, Luli informs the reader that the land he lives in has been called by many names, and fought over by many people, but that "the three Lucys don't care about names and who lives where. They only care about drinking milk, running after birds, leaping into my lap, and sleeping in the sun." Similarly, later on in the story, when the adults are arguing about who is to blame for the war, Luli demands that they stop their shouting, telling them they are worse that the littlest kids.

The loss of Lucy Lucy is a devastating one, but it is also age appropriate for the picture-book audience for which The Three Lucys is intended. After all, the actual war took between 1191 and 1300 Lebanese and 165 Israeli lives, and displaced more than a million Lebanese and between 300,000 and 500,000 Israelis. One of the lives lost was that of author Hayan Charara's grandfather, while the author's little brother, nicknamed Luli, lived through the conflict. These facts might be very difficult for a young child to take in or understand, but the loss of a pet, something many children will have experienced themselves, is something they will immediately be able to grasp. Reading as an adult, I was struck, as always, by how much nature and the animal world suffers, as a result of human affairs in which they have no voice.

Charara's moving story here is skillfully matched by illustrator Sara Kahn's watercolor artwork, which perfectly captures the emotional register of each scene. Luli and his parents' faces, as they race away from the area of the bombing in their car, the dark and shadowy scenes in Aunt Layla and Uncle Adel's basement, Luli's face when his mother tells him that Lucy Lucy is never coming back - these were all powerfully depicted, with artwork that highlights and accentuates the pathos of the text.

In sum: a wonderful, beautiful and terrible book. Wonderfully told, beautifully illustrated, and terribly heartbreaking. To whom would I recommend it? Not, perhaps, to very sensitive youngsters. But to older picture-books audiences perhaps, looking for stories about war, and the experiences of children and animals caught up in war.

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