The Silver Hand

Terry Deary's The Silver Hand is a First World War spy adventure for 11 year olds about a girl who hears something she was never meant to hear.

What happens

It's March 1918, in a village on the River Somme in northern France. Aimee Fletcher is late for school (again) and bursting with news. The Germans have broken through, and they're coming.

Her mum has a secret. She's one of a secret group of spies called the White Lady, sending messages to the British hidden in hollow broom handles stuffed with beans. Runner beans for soldiers, haricots for big guns. Aimee is in, straight away.

The British have taken over her school as a headquarters, and there's a traitor somewhere inside. Aimee is packing books in a cupboard when she hears him on the telephone, selling a secret new gas to the Germans. It's the sergeant with the silver hand. And one tiny slip tells him she understood every word.

Alongside Aimee's story is Marius, a boy from Germany who swapped clothes with a deserter and walked towards the front to help in the hospitals. He's gentle and brave, and his grandmother taught him how to make fever medicine from willow bark. You can feel the two stories drifting towards the same village on the map, and it's very exciting.

The history is packed into little details. Soldiers grumbling about bread made from acorns. Songs on the march. Men blinded by gas walking with a hand on the shoulder in front. Keep an eye on the little German corporal Marius meets on the very first day, too.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This is a war book and it doesn't look away. Marius helps the doctors with terrible injuries, including arms and legs that can't be saved. The traitor tells Aimee exactly how children can have "accidents" in wartime, and later she finds herself alone with him in the basket of a balloon. A deadly flu is killing soldiers in days. Sensitive readers may find it a lot.

For a confident reader who loves history with real danger in it, it's a gripping, fast read with short, punchy scenes.

What to read next

If they want more of the Western Front, War Horse follows a young farm horse from Devon who is sold to the army and shipped off to France.