Anna at War

Helen Peters' Anna at War is a Second World War story for 11 year olds about a Jewish girl who has to leave Germany on her own.

What happens

It starts in the present day. Daniel's class is learning about the war, and he realises he knows almost nothing about his granny's childhood. Then she mentions, very casually, that she's just had a letter from MI5. They want to release her wartime files.

Why would the Secret Service have files on a thirteen-year-old girl? That's the hook, and it's a good one. Granny sits Daniel down with a box of old letters and tells him everything.

From there it's Anna's story, in her own voice. She lives in a small German town and listens at doors because her parents won't tell her anything. Her best friend has stopped playing with her. Hitler is shouting on the radio.

Then comes the night of broken glass. Anna's mama pushes her into the wardrobe as storm troopers smash their way into the flat. Through a crack in the doors she watches them wreck her room. Her papa is taken away.

After that, everything is about getting out. Anna rescues her uncle's cat from right under an SS officer's nose and teaches herself English from two little dictionaries. Then a letter arrives with a place for her on a children's train to England. One small suitcase. One toy (her teddy, Alfred). One book, and she picks Heidi.

It's gripping and very moving. Anna is clever, stubborn and scared, and you feel all three at once. And just as the train pulls out, a stranger pushes a basket through the window. Inside is a baby (yes, really).

This one is honest about what happened, so it's good to know what's coming. The raid on Anna's home is terrifying, with a bayonet slashing through her bed. Her papa comes back thin and bruised and isn't allowed to talk about the camp. A soldier on the platform hits a crying mother. And saying goodbye to her parents is heartbreaking.

For a reader who is already curious about the war, it's a brilliant way in. It's one child's experience rather than a history lesson, and Anna is great company.

What to read next

If they want more of Helen Peters' wartime writing after this, Friends and Traitors is set in a grand English country house. A girls' school has been evacuated there, and a new housemaid called Nancy arrives right in the middle of the chaos.