We Played Marbles

by Tres Seymour, Dan Andreasen (Illustrator)

Papaw--who lives near old Fort Craig, a battlesite of the Civil War--teaches his two grandsons a better game than playing soldier in a deeply moving picture book by the creators of Black Sky River.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Tres Seymour is a picture book writer, illustrator, and ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park and lives with his wife in Park City, Kentucky.

Reviews

[Emily Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are so many things I adore in this book: The storyline revolving around boys’ playfulness and the joy of childhood, the carefully entwined Civil War facts, and the sweet ending. But, mostly, I fell in love with the illustrations.
The artwork is as expected from a book published in 1998. But it’s not so much the artistic style that captures me. Rather, it is what the illustrator chose to incorporate into almost every scene: Civil War soldiers and actions hidden within the clouds and reflected in the foggy waters of the pond. Such a solemn reminder that the lives and stories of the men involved The War Between the States are becoming but mere vapors, yet their history exists alongside us as if the battles just took place. The cloud figures provide a ghostlike juxtaposition of the actions then versus the actions now, reminding that history happened on the same land and in the same areas we see every day.
Perhaps this book wouldn’t be a favorite of many children, but it certainly pulled at the heartstrings of this 23-year-old Civil War history lover.

[Sydnee Gann · Rating 4 out of 5]

As two boys are playing on the hillside that was at one time Fort Craig, they relate a lot of what they are playing to what took place there during the Civil War. They make mud pies, ride horses, and quietly observe, until their Paw intervenes; he pulls out a shiny round "ball" and begins the game, one that has been passed on from generation to generation.

I honestly really like this book; I think it is great at relating these kids simple actions to that of Confederate and Union soldiers. I do not think we think of these perspectives much.

I would try to incorporate this book into my classroom if I ever have a unit on the Civil War. I think that it is just very simple, yet really depicts how different our actions are at Fort Craig now versus 1862 and following.