Back to Contents. Back to Bibliography. Back to Home Page.
This book is from the Puffin Modern Classics series. It was first published in 1967.
It is the spring of 1940. Seventeen year old John Aston is the son of a captain in the merchant navy. He is living with his mother in a cottage because their large house is being used as a hospital by the army. John makes friends with Pat, a London evacuee, who is living with his stepmother in appalling conditions in an old railway carriage. John persuades his mother to let them come and live in the old stables and John and Pat work hard at the renovations.
John is an ardent follower of the war news. While walking along the sea wall he sees crowds of small boats making their way to Folkstone. He has heard that Calais has fallen to the Germans and now he puts two and two together and deduces that the British Army is being evacuated from the beaches around Dunkirk. If Pat will help him he could take the family boat, the Dolphin, over to France. Pat agrees. The owner of the boatyard where the Dolphin is kept has been selling petrol on the black market and John blackmails him into having the Dolphin made ready for them.
So seventeen year old John and fourteen year old Pat take the Dolphin and follow the trail of small boats making their way across the Channel. The scene they find there is described through John's eyes. Big naval ships are standing offshore and beyond them in the shallows are hundreds of little boats. There are wrecks too - of small boats capsized and drifting. On the shore are crowds of soldiers. Lines of them advance into the sea where they stand shoulder deep waiting to be taken off in a boat. John and Pat ferry groups of men to a destroyer.
But all the time they are doing this German planes are flying overhead dropping bombs and machine gunning both the men on the beach and the small boats and for the first time in their lives John and Pat are exposed to death and devastation. But despite their fear and horror, despite cold, hunger and absolute exhaustion they carry on.
The Dolphin Crossing has much detail about wartime Britain - evacuee children, rationing and the black market, the blackout -- and Churchill's speeches. The characters of John and Pat are well drawn and contrasted. There are also magnificent descriptions of the English coastline which borders Romney Marsh.
But primarily this is a book about Dunkirk. Nothing else which I have read about it has brought it home to me so well what conditions on the French beaches were really like.
A gripping story with vivid descriptions of the Dunkirk evacuation. Small wonder that it is a modern classic.
12+
This book is from Puffin's Warpath
series - books which are part fact books and part war stories.
The stories are fictional but based on real-life events. Depth
Charge Danger is about the midget submarines and the attempt
to sink the German battleship Tirpitz.
The book starts with a short note on the Battle in the North Atlantic
and the facts are made very clear to young readers. During the
Second World War the British Navy had more ships than the Germans,
but the German ships were more modern. And in some cases much
stronger. The Bismarck and the Tirpitz were the mightiesat battleships
afloat at that time. After the sinking of the Bismarck the Tirpitz
was kept moored in the safety of the Norwegian fjords causing
a large part of the British Navy to be put on stand-by in the
North Atlantic. Also the existence of the Tirpitz meant that no
Allied convoy was safe.
After this note there is a map of Norway and also a submariners
menu -- a typical days food on board a World War II submarine.
Then readers are plunged into the story which takes the form of
the fictional diary of young Lieutenant John Smith.
John is in a submarine which is under attack. It escapes but is
badly damaged and just manages to limp back to its base on the
east coast of Scotland. Once ashore John is summoned to another
base on the Firth of Clyde. He finds that he has been made Commander
of one of the midget submarines which is to try to sink the Tirpitz.
At first sight the task seems impossible. These miniature submarines
are to carry a four man crew. They are to be towed across the
Atlantic behind conventional submarines all the time hoping they
will not meet with any of the 'wolf packs' of German submarines.
Then when they reach the Norwegian fjord they will be cut loose
from the large submarines and will proceed on their own. They
will have to negotiate a minefield and then there will be the
obstacles of anti-submarine netting and anti-torpdeo netting.
It is hoped that the fourth crew member, a diver, will be able
to cut a way through these. Finally if all goes according to plan
two timed explosive charges are to be loosed onto the bottom of
the fjord. Then there is the problem of getting back to the rendevous
with the parent submarine.
John's part in all this is told in detail in a fast paced story.
There is excitement on every page. Submarine conditions are also
vividly described. Despite the shortness of the book the characters
spring to life from the jocular Australian to the Scottish engineer
still mourning his brother who was killed on an earlier expedition.
At the end of the book there are again short factual notes. One
is about the midget submarines the other explains what happened
next. The Tirpitz was not sunk but was very badly damaged and
was destroyed by the RAF later. Then there is a map of the actual
fjord where the Tirpitz was kept.
There are also specifications of German and British submarines
and photographs from the Imperial War Museum of the Tirpitz and
a midget submarine.
A thrilling story combined with a short but comprehensive fact
book. This book is probably aimed at the ten to fourteen age group
but I would say that it will be of use to anyone wanting to learn
about the war in the North Atlantic. The facts are so well explained
that many adults could learn from it.
It also serves as a memorial to brave men.
Very highly recommended.
10+
This book is from Puffin's Warpath
series - books which are part fact books and part war stories.
The stories are fictional but based on real-life events. Detailed
information notes, pictures and diagrams are also included.
Night Bomber is about the V-2 threat and the British raid
on Peenemunde.
The book starts with a short note on the V-2 threat. In 1937 the
Nazi government set up a new weapons research complex in the fishing
village of Peenemunde on the Baltic coast. The aim was to produce
a rocket which could carry one ton of explosives and which could
travel one hundred and sixty miles. In 1942 British intelligence
gained definite evidence about this -- and realised just what
a threat these rockets could be. Whole cities could be destroyed.
This factual note is followed by a sketch map showing RAF air
bases in Lincolnshire, the flight path of the RAF bombers, the
coastlines of Belgium, Holland and Denmark and the site of Peenemunde.
The next two pages consist of a plan of the cockpit of a Lancaster
together with a detailed key.
Then the story begins. It is told in the first person by nineteen-year-old
Flight Engineer John Smith. The action starts on the very first
page. John is in a plane returning from a bombing mission in Germany.
The plane is attacked by Messersmitts and catches fire. Despite
strenuous attempts to put the fires out the Lancaster crashes
in England. John survives but the rest of the crew are killed.
After a spell in hospital John is sent to a new base and assigned
to another air crew. Most of the airmen are friendly but some
say that John is jinxed and brings bad luck. And secretly John
himself wonders if they are right because it was the second time
he had escaped from a disaster. Things come to a head when a really
nasty character accuses John of being a coward and tries to pick
a fight with him. John ends up with cracked ribs and the medical
officer is prepared to sign him off duty.
But this is just before the Peenemunde raid. Does John still fly
despite his cracked ribs? And does he manage to disprove the jibes
of jinx?
At the end of the fictional story about John there are more factual
pages. The first one is entitled Peenemunde and After.
This note describes the devastation caused by the raid. The research
programme was delayed by over four months -- a delay which was
to prove vital. By the time they were used the Allies had inflicted
serious defeats on the Germans and the V-2 rockets -- or Doodlebugs
as they were sometimes called -- ended up being a kind of desperate
last resort.
But if they had been used earlier then Britain could well have
lost the War.
After this note there is a plan of the research station at Peenemunde
and tables of air crew and bomber crew casualties.
In the middle of the book there are photographs of aeroplanes
with their technical specifications given underneath.
An exciting story combined with a short but comprehensive fact
book. This little book gets everything right -- and how often
can we say that! The story holds the interest and the characters
really come alive. The factual information does not intrude as
it is given separately. The facts are given clearly and they are
easily assimilated despite the detail. Above all they are presented
in such a way that they will always be remembered.
This book is probably aimed at the ten to fourteen age group but
I would say that it will be of use to anyone wanting to learn
about the Second World War. The facts are so well explained that
many adults could learn from it.
Very highly recommended.
10+
This book is from Puffin's Warpath
series of fictional stories based on real events.
It is August 1940. John Smith is a nineteen-year-old spitfire
pilot and here he gives his own account of the part he himself
played in the Battle of Britain.
In the first section he tells how he is shot down but manages
to bale out. In the middle section he goes on a brief leave to
visit his parents in London, sees the devastation of the Blitz
and spends a night in the underground. Then in the last section
he describes the momentous and crucial events of September 15th
when the Luftwaffe relentlessly sent wave after wave of bombers
over southeast England.
The first person narrative works very well and brings immediacy
to the story. The reader is made to feel part of the dogfights
and shares John's grief at the death of his best friend. As the
story deals with only a short time -- two months -- the course
of the War is made very clear.
The aircraft are described in detail. There is friction between
John and his father and this brings out the point that, at that
time, the RAF were partly blamed for not giving enough support
to the Army at Dunkirk.
As well as being an exciting, well-told story, this book has also
a short factual section with diagrams of the aeroplanes, a kit
list, actual flying manual instructions and battle maps.
Very highly recommended.
10 -- 14
This book was first published in 1988.
The story is set in Sutherland in February 1943. Fourteen-year-old Murdo Mackay lives with old Hector, a crofter and fisherman. Hector agrees to take his boat over to an island and collect some machinery for an Englishman, Henry Smith. Both Murdo and Hector are slightly suspicious of Henry Smith, but the pay is good and Hector agrees. Murdo comes with him in the boat. They brave the stormy, mountainous waves and icy waters of the treacherous Pentland Firth to bring the machinery and a group of Norwegians to the mainland.
But Murdo is still curious and when he gets a chance he prises open one of the crates and finds, instead of machinery, German guns. He is caught in the act and learns of a German plot, terrifying in its very simplicity. The Germans do not need an invasion force. It is in Britain already - in the form of the thousands of German prisoners of war, who are not kept locked up in camps but who work on the land. German guns are being landed at quiet parts of the coast all over Britain and the German prisoners of war will be armed when the code word is given -es flutet, es flutet, es flutet -the tide is flooding.
Murdo manages to escape. He scales the cliffs and reaches Hector's car and drives off in it. But he is forced to abandon it and make his way across the moors and mountains on foot. Then follows a chase over some of Scotland's most rugged and desolate countryside in the midst of the driving snows and icy winds of a blizzard.
But Murdo just has to elude his ruthless pursuers and bring word of the plot to the authorities.
Murdo is running, not only for his own life, but for the fate of his country. He is battling, not only against his heartless pursuers but also against the relentless elements.
A thrilling and unusual war story. For anyone who enjoys a really good story.
11+
This book was first published in 1995. It is a sequel to Kezzie.
The story opens with Kezzie aboard a liner taking her young sister, Lucy, back to Scotland from Canada. The ship is fired upon by a German plane - a grim portent of what is to follow - but no one is hurt and the crew members organise a party for the passengers that evening. There Kezzie meets an Italian-American family and dances with the student son Ricardo.
Back in Scotland Kezzie and Lucy stay with their grandfather in his new flat in Clydebank. He has now found work in the shipyards. When Lucy starts school Kezzie gets a part time job in a local cafe - and finds that it is run by relatives of Ricardo - the Casellas.
The Second World War starts. Italy is now allied with Hitler. Hatred is stirred up against Italians living in Britain and the Casellas' cafe is wrecked. Kezzie helps them to rebuild and carry on. Then Ricardo and his uncle are arrested and interned and sent to the Isle of Man.
Clydebank is the centre of the Clyde ship building industry. There are other industries there too - the Singer Sewing Machine factory, the Royal Ordnance factory, Rolls-Royce, Beardmores. Clydebank is therefore, an obvious target for German air raids and wave after wave of German bombers fly overhead and unload their cargo of destruction. Oil tanks are set ablaze and so the German planes can see their target quite clearly. Only eight houses in the whole of Clydebank are left undamaged. The fires of the burning town can be seen as far east as Edinburgh and as far north as Aberdeen.
Everyone does what they can. Kezzie's grandfather, a former mining engineer, helps to rescue people from collapsed houses. Kezzie drives a makeshift ambulance - the delivery truck from the Italian cafe - through the scenes of death and devastation. Even twelve-year-old schoolboys help as messengers on their bikes. They are needed as the telegraph lines are down.
Then there is a change in the story. Clydebank is completely destroyed. Kezzie gets a letter from Lady Fitzwilliam (whom we met in Kezzie) inviting her to stay in her large house in the country. So Kezzie and Lucy travel south and stay with Lady Fitzwilliam. Kezzie organises a school for evacuee children and works on a farm as a land girl. She meets up again with William and her gypsy sweetheart, Michael Donohoe.
This book really brings home the stark horror of the Clydebank bombing. I was born and brought up in Glasgow and I had, of course, heard of it, but before I read this book I had no idea of what it was really like.
Well worth reading.
11+
There have been case of cats finding their way home over distances of hundreds of miles and there is a theory that cats may have an even greater power -- that of psi-trailing. This means that cats can sense where their owners are and track them down. Robert Westall has made this theory the basis of Blitzcat.
Lord Gort is a cat. When the Second World War breaks out her master, Geoffrey Wensley goes overseas with the RAF and his wife and family are evacuated. When Lord Gort goes missing they think she is trying to find her way back to Dover, but it is not her old home Lord Gort is trying to find. It is her master Geoffrey. Lord Gort meets many different kinds of people on her travels. She stays with them for some time before moving on and, each time, she has some effect on their lives. She comforts a lonely member of the Royal Observer Corps, befriends a rough sergeant billetted in Dover, stays for a time with a devastated war widow and forces her to pull herself together and take charge of her life again, and finally becomes a mascot on an RAF base and actually flies with the aircrews in the bombers. Finally she is reunited with her master.
Probably the most compelling part of the book is that dealing with the bombing of Coventry. Lord Gort stays with two old men, Ollie and Stevo, who run a haulage company - with horses and carts. She shares the stall of the gentlest of the horses - Trojan. Their stables are in the centre of Coventry. When Coventry is bombed the horses are harnessed to the carts as Ollie and Stevo prepare to evacuate. But the horses are frightened by the flames, the heat and the light. Then Lord Gort steps forward and walks through the gate. And Trojan follows her and the rest of the horses follow him. Then follows a vivid description of the destruction of Coventry.
"The Cathedral was was a black cage of flame. The fire raged to break out like a caged tiger, shooting out great paws of sparks through its bars, reaching for anything which might be within reach."
But Lord Gort leads them all through the burning city. As they proceed they are joined by many other refugees - men, women and children. They finally reach the safety of a deserted farm.
Blitzcat paints a vivid picture of Britain and the Blitz. It gives a touching, and sometimes emotional account of the courage and spirit of the people who had live through it and make the most of things. The little cat holds the whole book together and gives it a firm structure.
Forceful, powerful, and at the same time, sympathetic.
12+
This book was first published in 1975.
Charles McGill has the second best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, Newcastle. Then, one day while running and hiding from the policeman Fatty Hardy, Charles comes upon a veritable treasure -- the tail of a crashed German bomber, with the machine gun still hanging from the turret. Charles wants that gun. Then he could beat Boddser Brown.
Charles is clever and resourceful. He takes his father's hacksaw and cuts the machine gun free. He enlists the help of his friend Cemetery Jones. They disguise the gun as part of a Guy and wheel it through the town on Cem's cart. Various temporary hiding places are found until the Fortress is prepared for it.
The Fortress is in the grounds of Benny Nichol's house. His father had been a ship's captain until his ship had been torpedoed. Now naval ratings are billeted in the big house. Benny - or Nicky as he is known at school - is neglected by his mother who is having an affair with an officer. Nicky is also bullied and ostracized at school.
Charles makes himself Nicky's proctector. As a result of this he is able to construct the Fortress in the rockery in the large grounds of the house. Charles, Nicky and Cem are joined by Audrey Parton, Clobber from Glasgow and young Carrot Juice. They get John, a gentle giant of a mental defective to dig up an air raid shelter and bury it deep under the rockery. Then they furnish it and stock it with provisions. The house is bombed and Nicky presumed dead. He moves to the Fortress and lives there with Clobber who pretends to have run away back to Glasgow. Then Rudi, the pilot of a crashed aircraft, blunders into the Fortress and the children keep him as a prisoner.
Meanwhile the police and Home Guard are looking for the machine gun. They have found the wreckage of the German plane and they know by the clumsy way in which the machine gun has been cut out that it is in the hands of children. They are horrified.
"Some bright kid's got a gun and 2,000 rounds of live ammunition. And that gun's no peashooter. It'll go through a brick wall at a quarter of a mile...If they cut loose with that thing ... they could kill twenty people without even knowing they'd done it."
Sam Liddell, Charles's English teacher and Commander of the local branch of the Home Guard, and policeman Sergeant Green have their suspicions but no proof. Then one night the church bells ring by mistake. A German invasion? The five children take refuge in the Fortress and there is a massive search for them ending in discovery and tragedy.
As well as providing an exciting and unusual story The Machine Gunners also gives a full and vivid picture of wartime Newcastle and the Blitz. The characters really come alive. There is Clobber the Glasgow tough, Nicky the rich but insecure little boy, determined and ingenious Charles and many others.
The Machine Gunners is based on a true incident, but one which happened in Holland, not in England.
Robert Westall wrote a sequel to The Machine Gunners -- Full Fathom Five.
12+
Jet, a labrador cross, is a poacher's dog. Her master is caught and sentenced to four months in jail. Jet is in danger of being destroyed but instead she is requisitioned by the Army.
She is trained to seek out enemy soldiers. When she locates them she sits, looks at her handler and then "points" at the enemy. She serves in France and is evacuated at Dunkirk, where she is wounded. Once restored to health she serves as a casualty dog in Britain. She locates the bodies of survivors in bombed buildings and saves many lives. Finally she is sent to Italy in the last phase of the war.
This book contains much detail about both the training and work of war dogs - something which has been largely ignored up until now.
And now a special note for all those people who, when faced with a book about an animal, at once turn to the last page. If the animal dies then they flatly refuse to read the book. Well I can reassure you, Jet not only survives the war but also is finally reunited with her original master. So it is safe to go ahead and read the book.
Sensitive and moving and very informative.
11+
This novel is based on an incident which really happened. At the beginning of the Second World War the passenger liner, City of Benares sailed from Liverpool with one hundred evacuee children bound for Canada. Far out in mid Atlantic the ship was torpedoed and seventy seven of the children died. The author has added a note about this at the end of the book.
The sinking of the ship comes near the end but it is no surprise to the reader as there is a sub title "Torpedoed! A World War II Survival Story." The cover also carries a picture of a sinking ship and a crowded lifeboat. The story is told in the first person by Jamie Monaghan so the reader knows right from the start that Jamie is one of the survivors.
James Heneghan takes his time and establishes his characters so that the reader gets to know them and care about them. We are shown Jamie at school with his friends and their frustration with the "phoney war." Then the war stops being phoney and there are vivid descriptions of air raids. Parents start to send their children away. Mr Monaghan manages to get Jamie and the two children from next door - Tom Bleeker who is the same age as Jamie and his little sister Elsie - on the City of Benares. Jamie is from a poor part of Liverpool and we are shown the contrast between working class conditions and the luxury - and the rich food - of the passenger liner. While walking on the deck Tom keeps saying that he has seen a German submarine. He tells one of the officers but he is not believed.
Then at ten o'clock one night, in the middle of a storm, a torpedo strikes the City of Benares. The children are all marshalled aboard the lifeboats before the ship sinks. Tom proves himself a hero when his sister is washed overboard and he jumps into the sea to try to save her. Eventually they are picked up by a rescue ship but it is too late for most of the children. Many of them died of the cold.
The background of Liverpool in the early years of the War is well described, also the luxury liner. The characters of Jamie and Tom are convincing and the story also charts their developing relationship.
A moving account of one of the Second World War's lesser known atrocities.
At the end the author has included a welcome note on his sources.
11+
This book was first published in 1991. It is the first of a trilogy. Emma Barton was ten years old when the Second World War started and these three books show how the War affected her. These books are really set in Canterbury but it has been fictionalised and given the name of "Kenabury."
Emma's War is firmly based on Violet Brand's own experiences in Canterbury during the War. She herself was ten years old when the War started and, like Emma, she was one of a family of four.
Goodbye Dad! is set in 1940. During the Battle of Britain, because of fears of a German invasion, it is decided to evacuate all the children of Kenabury. The three older children all go with their schools but Mrs Barton and the younger boy go separately with the "mothers and young children" group. Mr Barton is left alone in Kenabury.
They have no idea where they are going but when they get there they find it is Reading. Emma's elder brother, Bill, is lucky. He finds a good "billet" with people who are kind to him but it is quite different for Emma and her younger sister Fran. They find themselves staying with a couple who do not feed them properly and who, for most of the time, banish them to a small, cold bedroom. As if this is not enough, Emma has other problems. She is starting at a new school - Blankton Girls School. Her problems of settling in are compounded by the fact that she is a scholarship girl. She even has to have special speech training lessons. And War or no War, she is told by her formidable headmistress that she must wear gloves with her raincoat. If she does not have any then she must get some. But it is not all bad news. Emma makes some friends and her evacuation does not last long. After four months it is decided that there is no longer any danger of an invasion and they all return home.
The evacuation is described in detail:- the general instructions - when to meet at the station, what to take etc: the frantic last minute preparations at home: the scenes at the railway station: the actual train journey with the bomb damage in London and the later delay caused by an unexploded bomb near the line: the scenes in the church hall where they are given tea and biscuits before their prospective hosts and hostesses came to select them.
The War apart, there are other touches which show what life was like in the 1940's. The first chapter gives an interesting and detailed description of the Barton family working at the hop picking. Later it is forcibly brought home, several times, that cars, phones and bathrooms are luxuries only for "posh" people and beyond the reach of the majority.
There is a great deal of information in this book but it just occurs quite naturally as part of the story. There is absolutely no hint of a history lesson. The characters are sympathetically portrayed and really come alive.
An excellent picture of Britain in 1940.
10+
This book was first published in 1991. It is the second in the trilogy about Emma Barton who grew up during the Second World War. Like the others it is set in "Kenabury" - which is a fictionalised Canterbury.
It is now 1942 and the Blitz. "Tug-Boat Annie" is the name given to the air raid siren which announces that enemy planes are overhead.
Kenabury suffers greatly in the Blitz. Houses are damaged or destroyed. The High Street is reduced to piles of rubble with a few walls and empty window frames standing eerily erect. Emma's school is completely destroyed but half of her brother's school remains.
But life must go on and, with remarkable resilience, the people of Kenabury pull themselves together. The Barton's house has lost half its roof and most of the windows have gone. What is left is covered in soot. Until their house is made habitable they go to the old school where they are fed by the ladies of the ARP and they sleep in the public air raid shelter in the Dane John Park. Despite her school being destroyed Emma still has to attend. Her formidable headmistress, Miss Cannon, says, "Teachers and pupils make schools, not buildings." A saying which surely encapsulates the spirit of the Blitz. Emma's school shares the half of her brother's school which survived the bombing -- boys in the morning, girls in the afternoon. Airmen come and send up a number of barrage balloons over Kenabury. Emma and her mother clear the soot out of their house and they are able to return home - although Mrs Barton and the girls have to sleep in the air raid shelter until the roof is repaired.
Throughout the book there is frequent mention of ration books, gas masks and singing in the air raid shelters.
The true horror of the Blitz is brought home to the reader by the fate of the Turner family. Mrs Barton and Mrs Turner are best friends, as are Emma and Betty Turner. Then a bomb hits the Turners' house and the whole family is killed except for Jimmy who is in the Dane John shelter. The Bartons look after Jimmy and how they help him to cope forms the core of the story.
Apart from the War there are also little details of everyday life in the 1940's. Water is heated in the copper and baths are taken in a large tin tub in the middle of the kitchen floor. There is an interesting little futurist touch when Emma and her mother are clearing away the soot in their house.
"'Pity there isn't something that will suck it all up,' groaned Emma.
'Perhaps there will be one day,' said Mum hopefully.
'Perhaps we won't even have soot,' said Emma even more hopefully.
'You can't have fires without soot and you can't keep warm without fires,' observed Mum."
This little dialogue brings home very forcibly just how much domestic conditions have changed since the 1940's.
"Tug-Boat Annie" really brings alive the spirit of the Blitz.
10+
This book was first published in 1991. It is the last in the trilogy about Emma Barton who grew up in Kenabury (a fictionalised Canterbury) during the Second World War.
Emma is now sixteen and growing up. Her brother Bill is eighteen and gets his call up papers. Her friend Jimmy Turner, whose family was killed in the Blitz, is now a bandsman. He is posted to Kenabury - much to Emma's delight.
There have been no air raids for a few months now but day to day life is still affected by the War. As a reminder of the blitz there are still piles of bricks in the High Street and the shops still have boarded up windows. Emma and her school friends knit scarves, socks and balaclavas for the sailors. Emma also does the shopping for her Aunt Bertha. She takes her ration book and buys chops for 1/6 and queues for sausages.
But the War does not stop Emma from having ordinary teenage problems. She is working for her School Certificate which she will be taking later in the year. She also finds time to worry about her school hat. Like many of her schoolmates she cuts it to make it lower and this triviality has far reaching consequences. On a more serious level, she schemes how to make her brother Bill meet her friend's sister Eileen "accidentally." Then there is her own developing relationship with Jimmy.
Every night the six o'clock news is listened to eagerly on the radio. The landings on the Normandy beaches and the advance of the Allied armies across Europe. At last there is hope that the end of the War may be near. Then a doodle-bug explodes in Kenabury - near the playing fields of Emma's school and the dreaded V2 flying bombs are seen overhead. But shortly after this the air raids are all over. The end of the War is only weeks away. The barbed wire has been removed from some of the beaches and Emma and Jimmy cycle down to Whitstable and have a picnic on the beach. Now it is possible to enjoy ordinary things again without feeling afraid.
Shortly after this the end of the blackout is announced and then the death of Hitler and the end of the War. On V.E. Day there is a street party and at night, on Mr Barton's allotment, there is a bonfire made from the old black out boards. On top of the bonfire, instead of a guy there is an effigy of Adolf Hitler. Mr Barton allows Emma and Jimmy to join the crowds who are singing and dancing through the streets.
The three books about Emma's War give an authentic and realistic picture of wartime England. They really evoke the spirit of the times.
In all three books music and brass bands play an important part. Jimmy Turner, Mr Barton and Bill and later young Jonty Barton, all play brass instruments. This is hardly surprising as Violet, along with her husband Geoffrey has also written "Brass Bands in the 20th Century" and "The World of Brass Bands." Violet herself has also written spelling books for schools.
10+
Second World War timeslip.
George Wetherall is a bored teenager who lives in a town in Northamptonshire. To pass the time he and his friends go creeping -- i.e. rush through a row of back gardens over fences, through hedges and across vegetable patches -- or sit together in a cafe.
But George does have one absorbing interest -- the Second World War. He thinks life would have been really exciting then. His bedroom is decorated in a World War Two theme and he has a collection of models. George also visits Eden Camp -- the prisoner-of-war camp which is now a WWII museum. He goes there twice -- once with his parents and sister and again with his class at school because they are doing a project on the Home Front.
Then in the middle of the school visit George suddenly finds himself transported back to the London of 1940. He has no identification papers, inadequate clothing and no 1940s money. How is he going to survive? If he goes to the authorities what will he tell them?
Then he finds a group of children who are hiding in the cellar of a bombed pub. They are being looked after by a girl who goes by the name of Ma although she is only fourteen. The children are all destitute but they do not want to be put in homes. Ma agrees that George can join them.
George soon loses all his illusions about WW2. He experiences the terror of the air raids and he is always hungry as they live mainly on potatoes, carrots biscuits and a little cheese washed down with weak tea often without milk or sugar. He even manages to be bored as all they do in the long evenings is to play ludo and snakes and ladders.
Then the eldest of the boys is killed. During an air raid he is sheltering under a railway arch which takes a direct hit. Over one hundred people are killed. George goes and sees the scene of the carnage and the stretcher bearers.
Then George becomes directly involved in the War. Ma earns enough money to keep them by working for man called Rags who has a second hand shop. George goes to help her and discovers that Rags has a wireless transmitter and is a German spy. Worse Rags is sending information to the Germans about the places where people take shelter during air raids. In other words Rags is responsible for the death of George's friend.
Can George, Ma and the other children stop Rags from causing the deaths of hundreds more? Does George ever get back to his own time?
Told in the first person in the sometimes coarse language of a twenty-first century teenager.
An unusual novel about the Second World War.
11+
This is the third in the trilogy about the Dyer family and there have been a number of changes since the second book -- No Friend of Mine. They still have the pigeons but it is now Lennie who looks after them. Dad is now dead -- and so is Uncle Charlie. Phyl is now married with a baby of her own and Mary is in the WAAF. Lennie is now fifteen and working down the mine but he hopes that when the War is over he will be able to go to Birmingham and get a job in a drawing office.
The first book in the trilogy was about Mary and the second was about Lennie. This third book is about Doreen.
Doreen now has a room to herself and Mrs Dwyer feels they can take an evacuee. Doreen has mixed feelings about the evacuee. She is enjoying having the room all to herself and does not relish sharing again. She also feels nervous. What will this strange girl be like? On the other hand having an evacuee might increase her status among her school friends.
The evacuee arrives. Her name is Rhoda Kelly and she is older than Doreen - thirteen to Doreen's eleven. She wears make-up and she says she has a boyfriend. Her mother is on the stage.
At first Doreen and Rhoda get on quite well together. And then things start to go wrong. In short Doreen becomes jealous of Rhoda. Rhoda is so good at everything. She gets on well with Doreen's intimidating Auntie Elsie. Lennie likes her because she takes an interest in the pigeons and one Saturday when he goes with his friend Martin to take the pigeons for a "toss" or training run, he invites Rhoda to go with them. Rhoda is also a good singer and she is invited to sing in a concert which is really just for adults. This is the last straw for Doreen and she taunts Rhoda cruelly about her mother never coming to visit and about having no father.
Rhoda runs away and puts herself in danger and Doreen is overcome with guilt. Is it too late for her to put things right?
There is one thing about this book which I find particularly memorable. The Dyers do not go to chapel very often but the last time they were there, there was a visiting preacher and she gave a sermon on "Careless Talk Costs Lives." But she was not talking about the government and spies. She was talking about careless talk in everyday life. She said that before you said anything you might regret you should always ask yourself three questions. "Is it True? Is it Kind? Is it Necessary?" and then you should only speak if you can answer "Yes" to two of these questions.
Doreen forgets this when she taunts Rhoda.
An interesting story about two young girls growing up with an authentic war time background.
10+
This is from Scholastic's My Story series where a historical event is shown from the point of view of one particular fictional character from entries in her diary.
Edie Benson is twelve when the Second World War starts. She lives in London with her parents, younger brother and older sister. She has another brother who is ground staff at Biggin Hill and an older sister in the Army. Edie's father is a fireman and her mother joins the ARP.
Edie's parents decide not to evacuate her and her younger brother Tom with the other children. The whole family are to stay together.There are no schools and Edie and Tom do lessons with a retired teacher. Edie also helps delivering papers. An Anderson shelter is set up in the garden and the family weather the early air raids there. Then Edie's mother decides to send her to the country and, together with Tom, she goes to Wales. But things do not work out and after only two weeks they run away back to London. This is now the time of the Coventry bombing and Edie's father is sent there. Edie herself starts to help out in a Red Cross station.
Then the Bensons suffer personal tradegy and eventually they themselves are bombed out.
This book gives a good picture of war-time London. It is written in an easy to read style and just flows along. But of course, the diary format means it lacks the stucture of the usual novel
Has a section of contemporary pictures at the back.
10+
This is a collection of short stories about children who were evacuated during the Second World War. The selection is wide ranging -- there is even a ghost story -- and a number of issues are raised.
First of all it is made clear that these children are always living in the shadow of tragedy. In the very first story Paul is being evacuated. While in the station he sees some wounded soldiers who are being brought back from Dunkirk. Suddenly he realises that one of them is his own father. Paul rushes up to him but his father collapses just as he reaches him. But before he dies he manages to gasp out a message which changes the course of his son's life forever. Still on the theme of tragedy another story is about the sinking by a German submarine of the City of Benares -- the ship which was taking evacuee children to Canada -- and the death of a young footballer wh had sailed in her. In yet a third story two children are sent home to London to be with their mother because their father and older brother have just been killed.
Another theme is the harsh and unsympathetic treatment these children often received. Mrs Batty only takes in little six-year-old Brian for the ten and six she gets for him and when he wets the bed she rubs his nose in the wet sheet. Peter is billeted with a farmer who makes him work like a slave. He gives Peter so many chores to do that he is often late for school and the reader is given the full details of the harsh caning he receives from the sadistic headmaster. Even the children who are sent to a convent get unsympathetic treatment. They are forced to wash in cold water, drink cabbage juice and eat mountains of cabbage. Left-handed Christina is made to write with her right hand.
The position of June and Leonard is slightly different. The adults are kind to them but thirteen-year-old Stella, with whose family they are staying, resents them and is unkind to them.
Yet despite all this there are flashes of humour in the book, as in the story of the cabbage-obsessed nuns. Charlie tells Emily and Christina that his mother says that German paratroopers are going to invade the country disguised as nuns. The girls do not take him too seriously at first. But then, after being forced to eat her cabbage, a little girl called Norma is sick all over Sister Patrick's black skirt. Norma is taken away -- and never seen again. What has been done to her? This is followed by another disappearance, this time of a young friendly nun. Finally Charlie and Christina find "evidence" that Sister Patrick is indeed a German paratrooper in disguise. They slip out of the convent and tell the police who come and arrest the suspect. But the result is not praise for Charlie. Instead the police sergeant scolds Charlie for wasting police time and then leaves him to the wrath and punishment of Sister Patrick.
But this is by no means the end of the story. Much more is to happen and there are surprises in store for everybody.
Likewise in the last story about Peter, the heartless farmer and the savage, cane-wielding headmaster; Peter finally manages to turn the tables and get his revenge on the headmaster with a prank which is vaguely reminiscent of Jennings.
Leaving aside the actual events of the War, this book shows clearly that modern Britain is a kinder, more humane and more tolerant country than it was fifty five years ago.
For me personally, the story, which made the greatest impression, is the story from which the book takes its name -- Sleep Tight Sooty. This is the touching, heart-rending story of how a little girl is forced to have her cat put to sleep.
This book shows the misery and suffering of the evacuation.
11+
This book was first published in 1973.
During the Second World Carrie and her younger brother Nick were evacuated to a small village in Wales. It was during that time, when she was twelve years old, that Carrie did a dreadful thing - "The worst thing of my life."
Carrie has carried the guilt of this "dreadful thing" for thirty years. Then when driving through Wales to a holiday at the seaside with her own children she passes through the village where she was evacuated. She decides to stop there and spend the night. She tells her children of her time in Wales. The story then goes back to the time of the Second World War.
Carrie and Nick are billeted with a stern, puritanical grocer Mr Evans and his timid, frightened sister Louisa - "Auntie Lou." As if this does not cause problems enough Carrie also becomes involved in a family feud. Mr Evans' sister Dilys is now an invalid living on a farm, "Druid's Bottom," a short distance from the village and being looked after by the faithful Hepizibah. Mr Evans has never forgiven Dilys for marrying a pitowner. He mistrusts Hepizibah and says she just wants the farm when Dilys dies. Carrie and Nick become friendly with Hepizibah and so become involved. When they leave Wales Carrie is convinced that she has brought tragedy to Druid's Bottom.
The last chapter shows Carrie's children going back to the old farm and we are finally told exactly what happened.
This is an interesting story about evacuees but apart from the evacuation aspect it does not contain much detail about wartime Britain. The War is very much in the background and, because the story is set in the country, there are not the usual food shortages.
10+
Carries' War, Nina Bawden's novel about children evacuated to Wales during the Second World War, is actually based on her own experiences. She herself, along with her mother and two younger brothers, was evacuated to Wales. Keeping Henry is a story from that time. It is the truth behind Carries' War.
Seven-year-old Charlie borrows a catapult, knocks a squirrel's drey out of a tree and carries home a tiny baby squirrel. His mother loves animals and takes care of it -- and it survives it become a friend of all the family. They call it Henry. But once Henry grows up there is a problem. Is he happy with them? Should they let him go? Would he survive in the wild? What should they do for the best? In the end that question takes care of itself.
This is a happy family story with the little squirrel occupying centre stage. We are given all the details of his growing development -- what he eats (more or less everything), how he plays with the children and how he makes a nest from the washing.
There are references to the War. Mr Jones, the farmer with whom they are staying, has an Italian prisoner-of-war to help him and Nina's family are worried about their father who is in the Navy, but, on the whole, the War is kept very much in the background. There is also the parallel between Henry being catapulted out of his tree and the family being catapulted out of their life in London. But for many readers the particular interest of this book will be that it is the truth behind Carries' War.
But these considerations apart, this is a delightful story and something of a treat for animal lovers.
10+