The First World War

Private Peaceful, TOP BOOK CHOICE

Michael Morpurgo (Harper Collins, 2003)

This is a superbly written book that addresses an important aspect of the Western Front and which gives a gripping account of life in the trenches.

It has been used by Geraint Brown of Cottenham Village College as the basis for an exciting historical fiction writing project with Year 9 students. So successful was this project, with its clever cliff-hanging technique, that some students actually bought the book for themselves to find out what happened.

Now that's success by anyone's definition.

To find out exactly how Geraint Brown used the book take a look at his scheme of work below, which he has kindly made available to other teachers, and look out for his forthcoming article in Teaching History. WWI Fiction scheme of work (This is a Microsoft Word .doc file. To save this file to your computer, right click and choose 'Save Target As').

The scheme of work gives detailed references to extracts from the novel and explains how they were used and with what purpose. Teachers could use this, together with the central materials in the Teacher Bibliography on this site, as a basis for their own project. As Geraint Brown showed in his workshop at the 2006 Schools History Project Conference, historical fiction has the potential to be so much more exciting than some of the turgid trench diaries that Year 9 produce simply because they lack sufficient depth of understanding of what life in the trenches was really like or how to write well.

 

Book Reviews

Remembrance, TOP BOOK CHOICE

Theresa Breslin (Corgi 2003)

A superbly well written account of the First World War told through the different, but interlocking, stories of five young people in two families. Particularly well done is the effect of the conflict on those at home, as well as those at the front. Pupils reading it would gain an insight into the emotional and moral dimensions of war in a way no textbook could attain.

It would serve as a valuable model for pupils' historical fiction writing exploring the war in a wider dimension, rather than just life in the trenches. And, because it is so well written, it would serve as a model for pupils themselves to write well .

 

Mudlark

John Sedden (Puffin 2005)

Jimmy is a mudlark. He dives for coins in the mud of Portsmouth harbour until the discovery of a skull leads him into a dangerous murder mystery. Around him is a city affected by the First World War - dockyards building warships, sailors and soldiers on their way to fight, families bereaved as casualty lists lengthen and the innocent interned. This excellent book conveys a view of the war from below, from a part of society that does not necessarily trust authority, whether it be the police or the monarchy, and follows a boy's painful progress towards adulthood.

The Guns of Easter

Gerard Whelan (O’Brien Press)

Jimmy Conway's father is in the British Army in the Great War, his uncle with the rebels of the 1916 Rising. Jimmy struggles with this conflict and with the dangers of living in a war-torn city. A very strong story, it is reminiscent of Sean O'Casey's plays where suffering and survival are pitted against heroism and sacrifice and the conflicting ideologies of nation and empire are delicately explored. The terrible events are seen through the eyes of a young boy, Jimmy Conway, who moves through war-torn streets in search of food for his family and witnesses horrors. His survival is his and his mother's triumph: 'in the war that for her was the only real one, she had won'.

No Peace for Amelia

Siobhán Parkinson

Amelia Pim lives in a Quaker family in a well-off district of Dublin. Her boyfriend is Frederick Goodbody, while one of her best friends is a Catholic, Mary-Ann, the family’s cook-general. Frederick, though a Quaker, volunteers to join the British army and is killed, whereas Mary-Ann’s elder brother, Patrick, is a member of the Irish Volunteers and takes part in the Easter Rising to gain Irish independence from Britain. 

Other title:

The Voices of Danger, Alick Rowe.
Set in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme