Sara Cassidy
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Picture
llustrated by Sydney Barnes
Heritage House
Learn more and order here.
A charming and evocative story within a story, exploring themes of wartime resourcefulness, local history, friendship, and the reverberations of the past in the present day.
​

             On a beautiful spring day in Victoria’s James Bay neighbourhood, eight-year-old Esther takes a walk with her great-grandfather on his birthday. On the same street and the same date, but seventy-five years earlier, two enterprising young boys go door to door offering to give people’s fences a fresh coat of paint so that they can earn a few extra cents in an era of wartime austerity.
               These parallel timelines converge as Esther’s great-grandfather pauses to show her an old fence with multi-coloured layers of peeling paint. He recognizes the avocado-green layer that he painted with his friend one spring day, way back in 1945—an unforgettable birthday that ended up being V-E Day, when the Allies defeated the Nazis in World War II. Through whimsical illustrations and vivid characters, this simple story shows how a pivotal event in history affects ordinary people and brings generations closer together.
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  • Home
  • Fiction/Poetry/Reviews
  • Children's Books
    • Painted Fences
    • The Sun is a Peach
    • Genius Jolene
    • The Moon is a Silver Pond
    • Helen's Birds
    • Scallywag on the Salish Sea
    • Nevers
    • The Great Googlini
    • Black Gold
    • Blackberry Juice
    • A Boy Named Queen
    • Not For Sale
    • Skylark
    • Double Play
    • Seeing Orange
    • Windfall
    • Slick
    • Sardines
    • School Visits
  • About/Contact
  • Editing
  • Instagram stories