Why?

When there is conflict in the world, a teacher cannot ignore news headlines, for students in the class will ask. Conflicts are never black and white. And in the present context, which book would you choose to pick up and read aloud? Each side is entitled to its own truth, whether or not that aligns with your version of the truth.

So here’s a perfect picture book, and being wordless, it doesn’t take sides, but only recounts the truth of humanity. It provides an anthropomorphic representation of the futility of war.

Frog is enjoying a flower in a tranquil garden when, all of a sudden, an umbrella-wielding mouse appears and attacks frog. The frog community retaliates and in return, the mice fight back. Soon the situation transforms into a full-scale war, the landscape becomes scarred, nobody wins, and the “why” behind the bloodshed remains unanswered. On the last page, we see the mouse with the wilted flower and the frog with the broken umbrella sitting miserably in a war-ravaged terrain.