Five Children On The Western Front - Kate Saunders
ISBN - 9780571310951
Publisher - Faber & Faber
Release date - October 2 2014
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.
I have been a huge fan of E. Nesbit and her work since my mother first
read Five Children and It to me when I was tiny. I've read the original
trilogy countless times so when I heard that there was a continuation of
the story being published I was horrified, for want of a better word.
I'm not a fan of most of these modern retellings of children's classics
that people assume children need because the originals are too old
fashioned. Despite my hesitation I bought and have owned Five Children On The Western Front since it
was published in late 2014, unread until I picked it up earlier this
week needing something to boot me out of the mini slump I seem to have
found myself in. It worked!
I'm still not a fan of modern
interpretations but Kate Saunders somehow managed to tap into Nesbit's
voice perfectly and it was almost impossible to tell at times that this
wasn't written by one of the first (and best) authors for children
herself.
We've skipped ahead a decade and along with Cyril,
Robert, Anthea, Jane and The Lamb (real name Hilary!) the Pemberton
family has been joined by Edie, narrator for most of the book. It's now
the first world war and Cyril is heading off to fight, Robert is at
Cambridge, Anthea is at art school and it's a tumultuous period in
history. The Psammead is all but forgotten, becoming a family myth,
until he suddenly reappears at the bottom of the garden.
Realizing
that he has reappeared for a reason, apparently to repent for all his
evil deeds when he was a minor god in ancient times, both the Psammead
or Sammy as he comes to be known in Cyril's letters home, and the
children (mostly Edie and The Lamb thanks to being the only two left at
home) set out to discover just why he's reappeared now. Five Children On
The Western Front is a much darker book in terms of both story and
tone. with the war hanging over the family personally, Cyril getting
ready to fight and Anthea becoming a women's volunteer in the hospital
it's a constant reminder that despite magic and wishes and traveling
through time & space real life is brutal.
Kate Saunders has
written a heartbreaking yet beautiful companion novel, one that I will
definitely be revisiting in the future - maybe after reading the
original trilogy, although I think having a gap of a few years between
reading The Story of the Amulet was beneficial as any obvious
differences in voice weren't as clear cut, at least to me. Five Children On The Western Front won the Costa Book Award
For Children which was hugely deserved, especially as it made me have a tear in my eye for most of
the book.
Further Reading
Five Children & It
The Phoenix & The Carpet
The Story Of The Amulet
