Another excellect story for boys which once again touches upon the war. ( )

I read this a couple of books ago to my 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter. It was quite hard going for them in places and we talked about the story and characters and what happens in war quite a bit before and after readings. Generally we read through to the end of the next very short chapter with the old man in the park observing. The story in several places had me almost losing my voice and welling up. It is very emotive, deep and tells of one man's story of war. There is a harrowing murder. It is a brilliant book. I've become a fan of the author and this is something like the 6th book I've read to these children. With this being such an intense read in places, we lined up a more light hearted story to launch into next. We've just read another Morpugo - My Friend Walter, nothing like as hard or emotional, but the children loved it even more, perhaps because it was more of a wild imaginary story rather than something so hard and believable. It was as we were reading this when we saw an old beggar in the street. My boy wanted to know what the man's story was, but on this occasion we did not have time to stop and ask. ( )

I loved this book, I'm also a fan of football. ( )

Not one of Morpurgo's best as I found the flitting between past and present very disjointed. Billy grew up after WW1 and saw his father suffer from the effects of mustard gas. In a poverty stricken family (his father cannot work due to poor health) Billy's talent for football (soccer) sees him picked to play for Chelsea's reserves. As he gets himself picked for the Seniors however, WW2 breaks out and his brother enlists. Tragedy strikes and Billy feels compelled to join up too. All this is told from Billy's point of view as an old man.
Unfortunately, this story isn't new and I wasn't really engaged by this novel.

Billy wanted to play for the Chelsea Football club. Billy`s dream came true but the second world war had started. Soon Billy went to war but came back to find his family dead. After walking up and down the country for years he comes back to the house where he live in his childhood and coaches a boy up into the Chelsea team. ( )