One Thousand Tracings

One Thousand Tracings

Picture book
Often when times are tough help comes to suffering folks not
from governments or programs, but from kind hearted people reaching
out the best they can. Even people they had been at war against.
That is the timeless message of Lita Judge's One Thousand Tracings:
Healing The Wounds of World War II, a sweet loving narrative told in
free verse.
What makes this story truly special is that it's the real
thing. Judge was cleaning out the attic of her grandmother's house.
She found envelopes holding tracings of feet. She showed them to her
mother and learned how her grandparents had organized a relief effort
to help the desperately poor people in Europe after World War II--
people without shelter, food, adequate clothes, the basics we take for
granted.
The narrator of the book is a young girl. Her father has come
home safely from the war. She thinks everyone she loves is safe until
she learns that family friends in Germany are in dire straits. She
and her mother send a care package. The friends write back asking for
help for others. Her father asks for names. They come in faster and
faster. The families and their friends work dilligently to send all
that they can to sustain life. The foot prints are used to find the
right size shoes. Wool socks were hand knit to go with the shoes.
During her research Judge discovered that the care packages had
reached over 3,000 people in 15 countries. Imagine that! A thank you
letter included this heart touching passage, "We are full of thanks to
our American colleagues; their friendship lets us believe once more in
the future, which otherwise lay before us in frightful darkness." Who
sent that hope? People like me and you. Imagine that!
I love, love, LOVE this book. I'm sure you will too.
On a personal note, when my birthday rolls around in September we are
once again going to raise money for UNICEF. This time the festivities
will take the form of a sock hop with music from the 50s and 60s.
Can't you just see me in a poodle skirt? Donations and silent auction
earnings will go to help children in other countries survive and
hopefully thrive.
A great big shout out goes out to Lita Judge. Bless you for showing
us so beautifully that we all can have a chance to make a real
difference in the world by reaching out to those in need.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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