“The Hundred  – Year Barn” is a historical fiction picture book  about a barn that has stood in place for one hundred years.   A young boy  boy who observed the barn raising as a five year old narrates the story of the barn  and all of the changes it  experienced  as the years unfolded.  Life and its everyday activities revolve around the barn and animals and people who work in the barn.  Woven into this  lovely, sentimental tale is the story of the boy’s father who lost his wedding ring when the barn was being constructed.   The young boy  finds the ring  in the grass and put it into his pocket; however, the ring falls  through through a  hole and is lost for many years.  One day,  the boy, now grown, returns home to marry the young girl who years ago fell  into  the meadow stream.   And  later, the  man, discovers his father’s lost  ring in a bird’s nest which falls  from the rafters in the barn.  He then proceeds to hang the ring on a hook beneath his father’s photograph of “the hundred –  year old barn.”

Throughout time the barn has stood  as a symbol of peace, community  and stability.  A  sweet nostalgic tale that gives children, who so often live in the moment, a nice perspective on time itself.  Through this story, children may come to appreciate  the importance of taking pause to reflect, appreciate, and consider  the changes  they have experienced in their own short lives.

The watercolor illustrations are soft colored, tenderly rendered and expressive.  The story itself and the illustrations  tend to evoke a melancholy mood. The story in itself,  however, is not sad.

Reviewed By Connie M. Smith, Breakwater School, Portland, ME