Being a resident of Cornwall, I was drawn to this book because it's partly set in this beautiful county, as well as Plymouth and France. I haven't read any of Hilary McKay's other books (I'm ashamed to say), not even 'Saffy's Angel', for which she won the 2002 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. But I've heard wonderful things about her stories, so was itching to read this one.
The story follows brother and sister Clarry and Peter, growing up in Plymouth in the early 1900s with their father (their mother died after giving birth to Clarry), and holidaying in Cornwall during the summer holidays with their grandparents and their cousin Rupert. Their father doesn't have a good bond with them, always preferring to sit on his own in his study rather than talking to his children, so Clarry and Peter always desperately look forward to their summer jaunts by the sea. When not in Cornwall during the holidays, Rupert goes to boarding school, and Peter is told he must go too. He is adamantly against this, and takes drastic measures to make sure he doesn't have to go. However, in the long run his plan doesn't have much effect and off he goes. He does make a very close friend while there, Simon, who is also very much in awe of Rupert. While the boys are at boarding school, Clarry battles against the sexism of the time whereby young ladies weren't meant to have ambitions, or want to learn anything other than needlecraft and cookery. She's a strong-willed and independent girl, and stands up to her father to make sure she gets her way. However the First World War is soon upon them, and the rosy dreams of endless summer holidays and laughter is brought to an abrupt end. How will the war affect the children's friendship? And will they all survive it?
McKay is very clever at how she explains the horror and pain of the war in a realistic but not over-dramatic way. After all, her audience is young children aged 9-12, so they need to be told the facts, but not in a way to give them nightmares. It was educational concerning how females were treated at the time, and also about how people rallied around doing their bit for the war effort. I was slightly disappointed that there weren't more descriptive scenes about their surroundings in either Cornwall or Plymouth, the text was more conversational. However, saying that, I enjoyed the book, I loved all the characters (Simon's sister Vanessa was slightly over-enthusiastic for me!), and it was a moving and fast-paced story.
As a bookseller and a parent, you know you're safe with a Michael Morpurgo book. I would have quite happily passed this straight to my 11-yr-old without reading it first, but a)she has far too many books to read already (but I guess I do too) and b) I wanted to read it first!
The book must be one of Morpurgo's longest - 437 pages! Even though some passages were, I thought, a little over-long, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Yet again, Morpurgo draws on fact to create a brilliant piece of story-telling. It is 1915. Merry lives in New York with her mum and dad, but her dad has gone to join the war. They soon get news from him that he has been injured and is recovering in a hospital in London. Merry and her mama know immediately that they must go to be with him, and so they book a cabin on the passenger ship 'The Lusitania', ignoring the warnings from other family members about how the war is being fought both on land and at sea. They should have listened to the warnings, as just as the ship approaches Ireland, disaster strikes.
In the Isles of Scilly, Alfie and his dad, Jim, are out in their little sailing boat trying to find some mackerel to take back to Alfie's mum. They sail past the uninhabited island of St Helen's, and hear a very strange sound coming from a disused and derelict building. On investigation, they find a young girl, half starved, frightened and injured. She is unable to talk, so they take her home to tend to her injuries and to feed her. She remains mute and appears not to know who she is or where she has come from. Alfie and his parents decide to keep the girl with them until she recovers, but soon the villagers start talking and accusing and start to turn against them. Why has this silent young girl stirred up such anger amongst the villagers, and how will they all learn the true story of how she got to be on the island?
Another wonderful book from the master of storytelling.
Only Remembered
edited by Michael Morpurgo
This is a wonderful collection of memories, letters, poems and stories from well known celebrities to mark the centenary of the First World War. I received an e-proof version of the book which unfortunately has neither the full collection of stories, nor the illustrations by the marvelous Ian Beck, but the stories it did contain were moving and thoughtful. Contributors include Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, Sir Andrew Motion, Miranda Hart, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz, Eoin Colfer, Antony Beevor, Emma Thompson, David Almond, Dr Rowan Williams, Richard Curtis, Joanna Lumley, Raymond Briggs, Shami Chakrabarti and Sir Tony Robinson. Royalties from the publication will be split between the Royal British Legion and projects for soldiers' children and families at SSAFA.
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
In my late 20s I read Kate's first book 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' which won the Whitbread Book of the Year 1995. I still have it and must re-read it, especially after finishing 'Life After Life' and then reading a review of 'Behind the Scenes....' to remind myself what happened. There are familiar themes - death, families, children. She especially seems to like the child death theme. Anyone who has read her later series of novels following Private Detective Jackson Brodie will recognise this heartbreaking theme.
Which brings us back to 'Life After Life'. We follow the tragic life of Ursula and her family - tragic in that, from birth through to adulthood, we watch her follow different paths which ultimately always lead to her death. She is born in 1910 and lives and dies (through the aforementioned different paths) through the two World Wars, which affect her in different ways depending on which path she has taken in life. This is the Butterfly Effect in full motion. Some scenes are so tragically sad and heartbreaking you just want to moan out loud and shed many tears, and share with whoever may be in the room with you how awful such a scene was and poor poor Ursula. Then you think, but that's ok, because the next chapter she will not follow the same path and everything will be better and happy - but the future for Ursula is not often a happy one.
I read this book on my e-reader, and must admit that at times I was a bit confused with what year I was in and how old Ursula was, as the chapters continually jump back and forth in time. If I was reading a paperback, it would have been easier to flick back to the start of the chapter to remind myself of the year, but with an e-reader it's just a bit more fiddly and you don't bother. However, I found myself getting into the flow of the time changes and it wasn't a problem then.
Shortlisted for both the Women's Prize for Fiction 2013 and the Costa Novel Award 2013, this brilliant novel would be one of my contenders for Book of the Year 2013 (along with Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch).
When The Guns Fall Silent
by James Riordan
A hard-hitting, graphic and, at times, upsetting account of soldiers on the front line during the First World War. Nothing is held back from the 'telling it as it is' way of storytelling. You may have read fantasy and science fiction stories of monsters or zombies tearing people's limbs off and blood pumping out of wounds, and 12-yr-olds probably love that horror and gore. Yet when the same imagery is used to describe soldiers being blown to pieces, decapitated by shrapnel, or taking their own lives because they can't take the horror any more, it is far more upsetting to read. The publishers mark the book as 12 plus, but I will be careful who I'll be recommending this to. There's a section about propaganda, but it is not named as such, so if a child were to read this, they would think those things actually happened - I can't describe them here because they are too appalling.
Yet I don't want you to think that this book shouldn't be read by children. It's educational, it's shocking, you learn the difference between the soldiers on the front line eating dry biscuits and sometimes drinking rain water mixed with blood in the trenches, and the senior officers in their cosy warm cottages eating roast dinners and drinking port. The title of the book refers to Christmas Day 1914, when the German and British soldiers decide to call a day's truce, and come together to play football and shake hands on No Man's Land. They are friends one day, but enemies the next. At the start of each chapter, there is a moving poem written by war poets, for example Wilfred Owen, and these short bursts of prose add to the solemnity of the book.
The book was first published in 2000, and has been re-released ready for publication in 2014 - the centenary of the First World War. The author James Riordan died in 2012 aged 66.
Stay Where You Are & Then Leave
by John Boyne
We'll probably see an abundance of stories and biographies set during the First World War over the next year, as of course 2014 marks its centenary. Add to that the fact that there are many war stories for children on the market already. They can learn so much more by reading these books than I ever did in my boring History lessons at school. There is War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, Soldier Dog by Sam Angus, The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett, and many others. Including this one.
I love John Boyne's writing. He writes both for adults and children. You'll probably have heard of his most famous - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which was turned into a film. 'Stay Where You Are & Then Leave' is about Alfie. On Alfie's 5th birthday, his dad signs up to fight in the First World War. His last memory of him is seeing him stride proudly into their living room in full uniform, and his mother and grandmother bursting into tears and running out the room. His mother lets him read the letters his father sends back, but after a while she begins to hide them away from him, and after that the letters seem to stop altogether. Alfie's mother tells him his father is on a secret mission and is not allowed to get in touch with them. Alfie thinks this is code for his father is dead. But then he accidentally stumbles across some information which makes it apparent his mother is holding an even bigger secret from him about his father.
This is a touching book about the innocence of a young boy trying to understand the horrors of war, about conscription, of conscientious objectors and white feathers, and of mental illnesses caused by the war which were not taken seriously during that period. A wonderful, educational read.
Look out for my next review on another book about the First World War - 'When the Guns Fall Silent'.
Soldier Dog
by Sam Angus
Definitely an older read than The Great Escape (see above), both verbally and emotionally. This is the heart-wrenching story of young Stanley. He lies about his age to join the army and serve in the First World War to escape his mean father, but also to seek out his older brother Tom who is also a soldier. He trains as a dog-handler, and the dogs are used as messengers between dug out posts and the front line. Dogs are trained to run through bomb blasts and gunfire without flinching to return back to their trainer owner - even if their life depends upon it.
A real tear-jerker of a story, with one use of bad language.
