This book is unlike others I’ve read as it has a huge focus on “I am just a child. Outstanding work from David Almond and the illustrations by David Litchfield are crucial to the story for children to make connections to how John is feeling and all that he sees during these dreary days. Dreaming is what helps John get by each and every day. He pictures them being friends because they are each the same. He has an unimaginable moment in the field where he meets Jan. To do so they must do their work, do their chores, and pray. McTavish tells all of his students that they are “children at war”. He wouldn’t even recognize him if he walked through the front door. John struggles because he cannot even fathom his father’s face it has been so long since he has seen him. His mam works in the munitions factory building weapons for the war against the Germans, while his dad is out in the trenches.

He keeps asking everyone and anyone when it will, including the King of France (though he is ignored). John catches a glimpse of a better world, in which children like Jan and himself can come together, and scatter the seeds of peace.ĭavid Almond’s rendering of the end of the First World War with the perspective of the young child John was beautifully done. One day, in the wild woods outside town, John has an impossible moment: a meeting with a German boy named Jan. His teacher says that John is fighting, too, that he is at war with enemy children in Germany.

His mum works in the munitions factory just along the road. John’s dad is fighting in the trenches far away in France.

David almond first book