In poignant verse, the story of one young shepherd makes the experience of soldiers in World War I accessible to children.

Once there sang a carefree shepherd
In a field of emerald green . . .
Once his world was all at peace.

Here is the tale of Tom Shepherd, tending his lambs and shearing their fleece and wooing his sweetheart, who weaves the sheep's wool to make him a coat. But then the Great War comes, and Tom must leave his beloved wife and his unborn child and go off to fight. In a moving, sobering story that resolves in a heartbreaking but beautiful ending, Once a Shepherd evokes the reality of war in a way young children can understand, while fostering a deep-felt hope for peace.