For parents, teachers and librarians
What is in these books
What is in these books, who they are for, and what we do with your email address. The short version: the war is told honestly, the violence is never graphic, and every book ends on kept hope.
Real history, accurately told and handled with care — the fear and the loss are honest, the violence is never graphic, and every book ends on kept hope. Safe for the classroom; true enough for the curriculum.
Who they are for
Readers aged 10 to 13 — upper middle-grade. Thirteen countries, one war, and in each one a child about that age living through it at home: the same years from thirteen points of view, gathered around the same crackling radio.
What is inside
Real history, accurately told and handled with care. The fear and the loss are honest — children in these books lose people, and the books do not pretend otherwise — but the violence is never graphic and nothing is played for shock. Safe for the classroom; true enough for the curriculum.
Reading them in any order
Each country is its own trilogy and stands alone, so a class or a child can start with the country that interests them rather than at a fixed book one.
The hardest countries
The child is never the enemy — not even in the hardest countries. The structures are judged; the children never are.
For readers of Goodnight Mister Tom (Michelle Magorian), The War That Saved My Life (Kimberly Brubaker Bradley), Carrie's War (Nina Bawden), Letters from the Lighthouse (Emma Carroll), Number the Stars (Lois Lowry), and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Judith Kerr).
A copy to read together
The Last Ordinary Summer
The summer before everything changed.
In a Bethnal Green kitchen, the wireless carries news from Europe that Vera Fletcher would rather not hear.
One last ordinary summer, and the love inside an impossible choice.
The England companion novella, free to parents, teachers and librarians. Send the book on, read it together, or run it as a class set: that is what it is for.
Parents and teachers: request the book- We ask for an email address in one place only — to send the free book — and that offer is addressed to you, not to your child.
- You need to be 16 or over to join.
- We never ask for anything about the child, and we hold nothing about them.
Questions about a book's content before you put it in front of a class? Write to hello@rushlightbooks.com and you'll get a straight answer.