LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
Shortlisted for the 2015 Guardian Children's Book prize - One of our Books of the Year 2014 - October 2014 Book of the Month - Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2014
Witty, tender and full of insights into life love and politics, this is a brilliant book in its own right as well as a worthy tribute to E. Nesbit’s classic Five Children and It. The year is 1914. Anthea, Robert, Jane and Cyril, who has just enlisted, are now grown up, the Lamb is a schoolboy and even Edie, an addition to the family since the original, is old enough to meet the extraordinary and magical Psammead when he re-enters their life. All the children are longing for some new adventures but has the Psammead still got his magical powers? As befits the serious times, the Psammead plays an invaluable role in helping the family understand the First World War while also sorting out problems from his own past. Action-packed, funny and thoughtful this is a book to fall in love with.
Although Kate Saunders' novel takes its inspiration from E Nesbit's Five Children and It, Five Children on the Western Front is an entirely stand alone novel and there is no need to have read the original classic.
Julia Eccleshare M.B.E
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About
Five Children on the Western Front Synopsis
Have you ever wondered what happened to the Five Children and It characters when the First World War began? Cyril is off to fight, Anthea is at art college, Robert is a Cambridge scholar and Jane is at high school. The Lamb is the grown up age of 11, and he has a little sister, Edith, in tow. The sand fairy has become a creature of stories ...until he suddenly reappears. The siblings are pleased to have something to take their minds off the war, but this time the Psammead is here for a reason, and his magic might have a more serious purpose. Before this last adventure ends, all will be changed, and the two younger children will have seen the Great War from every possible viewpoint - factory-workers, soldiers and sailors, nurses and the people left at home, and the war's impact will be felt right at the heart of their family.
Winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2014.
The Costa award was judged by the Daily Telegraph’s deputy literary editor Lorna Bradbury, freelance reading development and children’s book consultant Jake Hope, and author Jonathan Stroud. They said: “This profoundly moving and magical story tackles the biggest themes – love, family and friendship – set against the horrors of WWI. Kate Saunders’ astounding achievement is to have created a modern masterpiece that captures the spirit of a much-loved classic.”
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780571310951 |
| Publication date: |
2nd October 2014 |
| Author: |
Kate Saunders |
| Publisher: |
Faber Children's Books an imprint of Faber & Faber |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
318 pages |
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Author
About Kate Saunders
Kate Saunders (May 1960 – April 2023) was the author of many books for adults and children. She won the Betty Trask Award and the Costa Children's Book Award and was twice shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Five Children on the Western Front and The Land of Neverendings.
She was also an actress and a journalist writing for the Sunday Times, Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph and Cosmopolitan, and has contributed to Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Start the Week and Kaleidoscope.
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