I read this book because I was
telling a boy I baby-sit for how I had suddenly found myself extremely moved by
books about the war. I recommended he read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and,
in return, he gave me this book to borrow.
Tommo Peaceful is just a child when the story begins. His
father has passed away and he lives in England with his mother and his older
brothers, Charlie and Joe. On his first day at ‘big school’, Tommo meets Molly.
He falls instantly in love with her.
As Tommo, Molly and Charlie grow
into young adults together, Tommo realises that his brother has fallen in love
with the same girl. Worse than that, Molly returns his love. In a moment of
madness and full of eagerness to prove that he is not a little boy anymore,
Tommo signs up to join the army. Desperate to project his brother, Charlie
signs up too.
From the start we are aware that
things go wrong for Charlie and Tommo. Parts of the book are written in the
present tense, whilst the rest is reflecting on occasions from their childhood.
Tommo’s musings over his current situation divulge enough that we know that he
has found himself in an incredulous situation, the details of which are not
revealed until the last few pages. I anticipated predictability, but the ending
is politely surprising, desperately sad and, as is mostly the case with novels
for young people, there is teaching behind it. I don’t want to divulge too much
more in case I ruin it for anybody.
This is a novel for older
children, so it’s easy to read. If you had a day you could probably manage it
in one. Even as a ‘grown up’, I can confess that I did learn something from it.
It isn’t so overly horrific that
you couldn’t give it to your teenager. I think it would probably make them
think more carefully about the sacrifice boys not much older than them made
during the war and, in my opinion, that can only be a good thing.
If you’re an avid reader then I’m
not sure you will like this, unless you are extremely open minded or a teenage
boy. If you don’t plan on reading it but you have been left intrigued as to
what happened, then feel free to ask me about the story. Or Google it.
