BOOKS
Created: 11th November, 2020

War Is Over

Author: David Almond
Illustrator: David Litchfield
Publisher: Hodder

A child’s eye view of the final months of World War 1 is at the heart of this short novel in which the imagery emanating from both words and pictures are closely integrated. John wants to know when the war will ever end and writes to the king and the Archbishop of Canterbury: "I’m scared. My dad is in the trenches and my mam is the shell shop and I need to know when it will be over." He increasingly questions what he is being told by adults and other children and refuses to believe that German children are his enemies. His growing depth of understanding gets him into difficulties in a town where the munitions factory is so central to people’s lives and employment.

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