ACHUKA

children's & YA recommendations on the go

You are here: Home / Archives for WW1

My Soul, A Shining Tree by Jamila Gavin

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Nov 2025

Waterstones
Bookshop

“… cannot recommend it highly enough!” BfK 5-star review

Jamila Gavin is the author of some of the best children’s books of our era, notably the Suriya trilogy—The Wheel of Suriya, The Eye of the Horse, and The Track of the Wind— published in the 1990s, and followed by Coram Boy in 2000. Here she is a quarter of a century later, and now in her early eighties, showing that she can still produce fiction that towers above the rest.

See also:
Never Forget You [ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Jun 2022] 

Based on the true story of Indian WWI gunner and recipient of the Victoria Cross, Khudadad Khan.

The story is told from four perspectives: Lotte, a Belgian farmgirl whose village is the flashpoint for a battle; Ernst, a German teenage cavalry soldier whose grandiose dreams of war lie in tatters; Khudadad Khan, the gunner fighting with the British Army; and a wild walnut tree.

When Lotte’s farm is destroyed in the fighting, she and her sister flee with their young neighbour Michael, to take refuge beneath the walnut tree on the ridge — a ridge currently being defended from the encroaching Germans by Indian gunner Khudadad Khan. There, they are joined by traumatised German soldier Ernst, whose horse lies lost in the trenches of the battle raging below. As their perspectives converge, their shared humanity emerges as a light in the darkness of war, safe beneath the branches of the walnut tree that shelters them all.

The Story of Britain’s Black Airmen by K. N. Chimbiri ill. Elizabeth Lander

By Leave a Comment

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

Explore the fascinating, rarely heard stories of Black airmen during the First and Second World Wars. The Story of Britain’s Black Airmen celebrates the inspiring contributions of people of African descent to British aviation. From pilots to ground crew, and with tales from across the globe, the story of Britain’s Black airmen is an important part of the history of flying. By aiming for the skies, many of them helped to bring about changes that are still making our world a better place.

Includes inspirational key figures such as Cy Grant, Errol Barrow, Sam King and John Henry Smythe. With full-colour illustration by Grenadian illustrator Elizabeth Lander, whose work you can follow on Instagram:

When The War Came Home by Lesley Parr

By Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Jan 2021
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 16 Jan 2021

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

Follow the author on Instagram and see how the cover evolved from brief to final art:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Lesley Parr (@lesleyparr11)

The First World War has ended, but it hasn’t gone away. When Natty has to move to a new village, she meets two young soldiers who are still battling the effects of war. Huw can’t forget the terrible things he’s seen, but Johnny doesn’t even remember who he is.

As Natty tries to keep a secret and unravel a mystery, she finds her own way to fight for what she believes in – and learns that some things should never be forgotten…

Follow the cover illustrator on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviddeanillustration/

See also the author’s debut title from 2021, The Valley of Lost Secrets.

The Ghost Garden by Emma Carroll ill. Kaja Kajfez

By Leave a Comment

Time Children’s Book of the Week 16 Jan 2021

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

It’s Summer 1914. In the first of a series of unsettling coincidences, Fran uncovers a bone in the garden of Long Barrow House on the same afternoon that Leo breaks his leg. Leo is left wheelchair bound for the rest of the summer and Fran is roped in to keep him company, forced to listen to his foolish theories about the looming threat of war in Europe.

Suddenly the garden she has loved all her life seems to hold threatening shadows of the future, and Fran starts to fear what she and Leo might find next…


 

How About: Little Soldier + Shadow Of The Zeppelin

By Leave a Comment

ashley1

ashley2

2014 has been a significant year for Bernard Ashley.
It was 40 years ago that his first novel, The Trouble With Donovan Croft, was published.
And Orchard Books celebrated the 15th anniversary of Little Soldier by reissuing it with a new cover design, at the same time as publishing a brand new novel, set during WW1, Shadow Of The Zeppelin.

How About: Two Reissues? Flambards + The Edge of the Cloud

By Leave a Comment

Flambards and The Edge of the Cloud by K. M. Peyton were both reissued and rejacketed by Oxford Children’s Books this year.

flambards

First published in the late 1960s and set around the period of WW1, this pair of novels will appeal to readers who fancy a change of tempo and mood from brash contemporary teen fiction. They can also be appreciated by adults who enjoy reading Edwardian period fiction filled with horse riding and plane flying. Peyton’s writing is immaculate. The second book was awarded the Carnegie Medal.

A third Flambards novel appeared soon after, and a fourth title a few years later.

In an excellent recent Guardian feature, it was  said: “There are shades of Downton Abbey in Peyton’s sweep from the top of the social scale to the bottom…”

Here is a chronological list of her titles:

      • Sabre, the Horse from the Sea – 1947
      • The Mandrake, A Pony – 1949
      • Crab the Roan – 1953
      • North to Adventure – 1959
      • Stormcock Meets Trouble – 1961
      • The Hard Way Home – 1962
      • Windfall – 1963
      • Brownsea Silver – 1964
      • The Maplin Bird – 1964
      • The Plan for Birdsmarsh – 1965
      • Thunder in the Sky – 1966
      • Flambards – 1968
      • The Edge of the Cloud – 1969
      • Flambards in Summer – 1969
      • Pennington’s Seventeenth Summer – 1970
      • Fly-by-Night – 1971
      • The Beethoven Medal – 1972
      • A Pattern of Roses – 1972
      • Pennington’s Heir – 1974
      • The Team – 1975
      • The Right-Hand Man – 1977
      • Prove Yourself A Hero – 1978
      • A Midsummer Night’s Death – 1978
      • Marion’s Angels – 1979
      • The Flambards Trilogy – 1980
      • Flambards Divided – 1981
      • Dear Fred – 1982
      • Going Home – 1982
      • Who, Sir? Me, Sir ? – 1983
      • The Last Ditch – 1983
      • Pennington– A Trilogy – 1984
      • Frogett’s Revenge – 1985
      • The Sound of Distant Cheering – 1986
      • Downhill All the Way – 1988
      • Plain Jack – 1988
      • Who Sir, Me Sir ? – 1988
      • Skylark – 1989
      • Darkling – 1990
      • No Roses Round The Door – 1990
      • Late To Smile – 1992
      • Poor Badger – 1992
      • The Boy Who Wasn’t There – 1992
      • The Wild Boy and Queen Moon – 1993
      • Mr. Brown – 1995
      • The Swallow Tale – 1995
      • Snowfall – 1996
      • The Pony That Went to Sea – 1997
      • Windy Webley – 1997
      • Unquiet Spirits – 1997
      • Danger Offshore – 1998
      • Firehead – 1998
      • Swallow Summer – 1998
      • Swallow the Star – 1998
      • Blind Beauty – 1999
      • Pony Stories – 1999
      • The Paradise Pony – 1999
      • The Pied Piper – 1999
      • The Scruffy Pony – 1999
      • Horses – 2000
      • Pony In The Dark– 2001
      • Stealaway – 2001
      • Small Gains – 2003
      • Greater Gains – 2005
      • Blue Skies And Gunfire – 2006
      • Minna’s Quest – 2007
      • No Turning Back – 2008
      • Far From Home – 2008

Guardian Review

By Leave a Comment

Stay Where You Are & Then Leave by John Boyne, reviewed by Tony Bradman

Bradman has a number of quibbles and reservations about John Boyne’s new First World War novel, but ends on a positive note.

Early on, we are told that Alfie had often heard Prime Minister Asquith’s name "on the wireless", which would have been difficult in 1914 as the BBC only started broadcasting in 1922. Some of the dialogue feels anachronistic: I don’t think anyone in 1918 would have said "a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do". That cliche – both the phrase and the hackneyed, John Wayne ideal of masculine courage it aims to encapsulate – came out of Hollywood in the 1950s.

And yet my final verdict is positive. Stay Where You Are and Then Leave has its faults, but ultimately it is a good, solid, engaging read that manages to avoid too much sentimentality. That won’t be true of many of the first world war books heading our way next year.

via Stay Where You Are & Then Leave – review | Books | The Guardian.