In Sunday’s Child, Serena Katt pieces together the story of what her grandfather did during the war using some of his words, a few of her own and, most powerfully of all, her magnificently unsettling, largely monochrome illustrations. The result brings to mind an old photograph album, except that even the most seemingly innocent images on its pages come with a strong historical resonance... Even as she worries about his acceptance of all that he is told, she is able to picture what must have appealed to boys like him: the flags and the songs, the ostentatious rallies and the overblown monuments. Her pencil makes these things look beautiful and extraordinary; Günter and the other teenagers, though strong and muscular and wilfully ignorant, seem rather small by comparison. There is, I think, real daring here, as well as empathy and imagination. What would you have done? she quietly asks: an age-old question, but still an enduringly good one.
