Are there any topics that should not be covered for children’s books?

AFTER THE WAR

By Tom Palmer

Cover design by Barrington Stokes and illustrated by Violet Tobacco

Published by Barrington Stoke Ltd

ISBN: 978 1 78112 948 7

£6.99

I was emailed over the summer by the Head at the school I work at to see if I would be interested in attending a virtual conversation with Tom Palmer presenting, organised by the Barnet library association. As it was in the evening, which is a busy time for myself, I was initially quite sceptical. However, I am so pleased that I did go in the end, because the event was interesting, entertaining and knowledgeability (I’m not sure that that is actually a word…) thirst quenching. I’ve always been interested in history from a young age, especially that surrounding the two World Wars (I think partly due to my GCSE history teacher, who was quite a character – he had a shrine to Southampton football club hidden away in his cupboard which noone was supposed to see, and we only had glimmers of when he accidentally left some paperwork or other in there and he had to retrieve in during a lesson!). Tom was very passionate about the subject and was very forthcoming about the journey his research took him on.

What a fascinating period of history to choose, because it is one that I am sure very few people (including myself) know that much about.

The story focuses on the real-life journey that some Jewish children from Germany and other areas of Europe went on ending up in the Lake District. The boy at the centre of this story (although not real) Yossi (boys like him can be seen in the photographs provided in the book) travels from Poland to the Lake District with his two friends: Leo and Mordecai. They slowly adapt to the free and unrestrained life around them, learning to trust their helpers and the locals whilst still suffering from flashbacks to the most awful memories during the war. This really is where my top question comes from, and what Tom spoke about at length during his interview – should these harrowing moments be mentioned in a children’s book? I agree with Tom – yes, they should, but sensitively so. Tom recounted that whilst writing the book he gave early excerpts to a local school, and those children were the ones that asked him to put in more detail, because they wanted to know what life was actually like for children like Yossi. The characters and feelings (on going fear, desperation and loneliness) explored by them are expertly handled by Tom and it is a story of both warmth and hope by a stirling author. The story is simple, but also in places deep. It is easy to read, but grasp a difficult subject brilliantly. A super read and perfect for Year 6.