This book tells the story of Tommo Peaceful growing up in the countryside with his brother Charlie and their close friend Molly. When Tommo is nearly sixteen a sergeant-major comes to their village recruiting men to fight in the trenches in the First World War. Even though Tommo is under-aged he signs up anyway, thinking that the war will be over by Christmas. Little did he know how much his decision would change his life forever.

Morpurgo writes a tale of childhood happiness, growing up, first love, jealousy and courage.

I found this book very hard to put and down as it pulled your imagination in so that you felt for the characters and shared their feelings. It was very easy reading and a story that kept you interested to the very last word.

However I found that Morpurgo only scraped the surface of the real horrors of the war and could have had more descriptive writing so you got a better feel of what the characters are going through in the trenches. A repeating theme in this book is ‘oranges and lemons’, the children’s nursery rhyme. Although this was quite sweet I found it a bit childish and predictable.

I would give this book 8/10. I would not give it full marks because I thought that there was room for improvement, even though it was very good.

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