War Stories

Michael Morpurgo's War Stories is a collection for 11 year olds, gathered by him, in which different writers each tell one story about war and the people it changes.

What happens

Every writer opens with a short note about why they wrote their story. Then comes the story itself. It's a lovely way in, a bit like having the author sit down next to you first.

Morpurgo's own story, Half a Man, is about a boy called Michael and his grandpa. Grandpa was terribly burnt when his ship was torpedoed in the Second World War. As a little boy Michael can't stop staring at his grandpa's face and hands, and he gets told off for it every single visit.

When he's older, Michael spends his summers with Grandpa on a tiny island in the Isles of Scilly. They fish together, mostly in silence. And one day, out in the boat, Grandpa finally tells him what happened. It's a very moving story about really looking at someone (Grandpa says most people look away, and Michael never did).

Geraldine McCaughrean's Ex Voto goes much further back, to a knight coming home from the Crusades in 1148. Sir Hugh stops at a monastery to carve a cross of thanks into the chapel wall. The greedy abbot tells him he owes money for every man he killed. It's angry and quite darkly funny about who really gains from a war.

Michelle Magorian's Waiting for Peace is set the day before VE day in 1945. Guy and his train-mad little brother Roger sit by the wireless, waiting to hear that the war in Europe is over. (Roger will tell you EVERYTHING about the Flying Scotsman.)

That mix of voices is the real joy of it. Each story is short enough for one sitting, and they come at war from completely different directions.

This is a serious book, though, and it's worth knowing that before you start. Half a Man describes Grandpa's burns plainly, along with his memories of men dying at sea. Ex Voto opens with blunt, bloody lines about what swords do in battle. For a sensitive reader you might want to read the first story together. For one who's curious about history and ready for real feelings, it's a brilliant collection.

What to read next

If they want more of Morpurgo on war, War Horse is in the library too. Joey the horse tells the whole story himself, starting from the day he's sold away from his mother.