A blog by Gillian Polding, Area Manager, Children & Young Persons, Buckinghamshire Libraries.
Hi everyone,
With events that were planned for the 75th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day in May unable to go ahead, the importance of this day has been marked in other ways.
World War II was a pivotal time in British history. Bucks libraries have a collated a special collection of eBooks on stories set in World War 2 to commemorate VE Day. These page-turning reads will give your children a real insight into what life was like for both children and adults, on the battle field and on the Home Front.
https://buckinghamshire.overdrive.com/library/teens/collection/1074434
Our School Library Service also has a number of other resources for schools to borrow, including a replica evacuee’s suitcase.
Three authors come to mind who have written enthralling accounts of wartime, based on actual events – Michael Foreman, Michael Morpurgo and Michael Rosen.
The missing: The True Story of My Family in World War11 by Michael Rosen is a personal, powerful and resonant account of the Holocaust by turns charming, shocking and heart-breaking, this is the true story of Michael Rosen’s search for his relatives who “went missing” during the Second World War – told through prose, poetry, maps and pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI4KatU49L0
Interestingly, each of these authors have expressed in interviews similar ideas about the importance of telling children stories about the war
“Books are the most vital tool of education — they are more important than any other fancy resource. Stories give us knowledge and understanding. They teach us about our place in the world and we learn what happened in the past and how we can do better in the future.” Michael Morpurgo
In a recent interview about his book “After the War Was Over”, Michael Foreman explains
“I lived in a little village on the East Coast of England. Through that village came thousands and thousands of soldiers on their way to the war who would spend some time in our village training. At night they would come and play cards in our front room, my Mother would still be working in the shop and so they would take turns to sit by my bedside and tell me stories. Now we had no books at home, so they couldn’t open a book but they could open a whole world of stories because they came from many different backgrounds, different cultures. I think that’s the important thing of an adult reading with a child, is that it shouldn’t be the adult reading the story and the child sort of just sucks it up, it should be a joint thing. That’s where the real warmth comes in to it, what’s special about sharing a story with a child and encouraging them to ask all kinds of questions.”
After the War Was Over by Michel Foreman. Pavilion Books, 1995
Buckinghamshire School Library Service
Gillian Polding MCLIP
Area Manager Children and Young Persons
Buckinghamshire Council
01296 382273
Mobile no.07720207010
gillian.polding@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Walton Street Offices, Walton Street, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP20 1UA