My Childhood Bookshelf: Explosives, Flowers, and Drummer Hoff

Drummer Hoff was one of my favorite books to read as a child. The story, originally an old folk song, is retold in poetry by Barbara Emberley. Ed Emberly received a Caldecott Medal for his Vibrant stained glass inspired illustration. Through rhyming and repetition it tells the simple story of a cannon being loaded and fired. This is a book that really shines on the second, third, or twentieth readings. Children love the anticipation of the cannon being loaded.
It is only as an adult that I'm a little unsettled by the fact that we don't know why the cannon needs to be fired, or where exactly the "shot" is headed towards. It is comforting to see that the last pages is a cannon overgrown with flowers, and a nest of baby birds living in the barrel.