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My Soul, A Shining Tree by Jamila Gavin

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 11 Nov 2025

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“… 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

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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:

Our Beautiful Game by Lou Kuenzler

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 5 Jul 2021

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They can take our ball, but they can never stop the game.

A timely, important and well-researched ‘middle-grade’ historical novel about the growth in women’s football on the home front during WWI. Publication of the novel marks the centenary of the FA’s shameful banning of women’s football in 1921—a ban that remained in place for 50 years.

Who better to tell you more about the book than the author herself:

A hundred years before the Lionesses, Lily Parr, Alice Woods and their teammates were proudly playing their beloved, exciting and skilful game. As men were sent to fight in the war, women and girls took their place in munitions factories. Football became a favourite pastime and, before long, they were creating all-female sides and playing public matches to sell-out crowds, overshadowing the men’s football.

“Absolutely magnificent! A glorious tale of football, friendship, feminism and social history”
EMMA CARROLL

 

ACHUKAreview – The Grubby Feather Gang by Antony Wootten

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FeatherGang

This is a great little book – one I’m so grateful to the author for bringing to my attention. It’s essentially self-published, but don’t let that put you off. Apart from an annoyingly long first-line paragraph inset, it’s an exceptionally polished presentation. As a short chapter book about bullying and pacifism, set at the time of the First World War, it presents moral and behaviour conflicts in a manner that makes it eminently accessible for children of primary school age. It would make a very good group read.
The author is a primary school teacher and says (his experience is one I can share from my own time working with this age range), “I believe there are many very capable readers in upper key stage 2 who are put off by longer novels but who do want to read challenging and interesting subject matter.”
The book is presented as the first in a series of “BigShorts” – short novels for strong readers, that Wootten intends publishing and promoting through his website. If subsequent titles are as good as this, ACHUKA will be happy to help promote them.
The writing is clear, visual and uncluttered. The characters are finely delineated – the bully, the victim, the pacifist father, the strict schoolteacher, the friend & accomplice – but all very believable. The conflict between the main character’s parents – his father the conscientious objector, and his mother who has to bear the brunt of fellow women’s resentment that while their husbands are away fighting hers is at home shirking – is one of the best aspects of the book.
Female readers might want George’s friend, Emma, to play a more forthright role in subsequent adventures.
Oh, and there is animal interest, in a cat named Azar.
The formula is a good one.

via The Grubby Feather Gang.

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

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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