AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER
by Michael Foreman & illustrated by Michael Foreman
After The War Was Over ($18.95; May 20, 1996; 96 pp.; 0-55970-329- 6): Unusually small typeface doesn't detract from this companion to War Boy (1990) and War Game (1994), about the return to relative innocence that marked the immediate postWW II years. In shining prose, Foreman limns the wonders of peace time: his first visit to a beach, the end of rationing, the Big Band sounds coming over the radio. The illustrations, watercolors punctuated by black-and-white drawings and full-color reproductions of advertisements and posters, convey the poignancy of the times: In the stooped posture of two Estonian schoolboys is all the fear an outsider ever felt. Evocative and memorable. (Autobiography. 10+)