After the War 

by Tom Palmer

Key information 

Author: Tom Palmer

Illustrator: Violet Tobacco

Release Date:6th August 2020

Book type: Chapter, 176 pages, paperback

Star rating: ★★★★★

Reader level: Confident (content 9+)

Age: Year 5+

Overview

Master storyteller Tom Palmer returns with a deeply moving and beautifully told novel of friendship and belonging, inspired by the incredible true story of the Windermere Boys.

Summer 1945. The Second World War is finally over and Yossi, Leo and Mordecai are among three hundred children who arrive in the English Lake District. Having survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, they've finally reached a place of safety and peace, where they can hopefully begin to recover.

During his time in Windermere, Yossi struggles to cope with the events of his past and finds that the smallest event transports him back to the last time he saw his family. Through regular flashbacks, we learn of how Yossi and his Jewish community were forced to live in ghettos, how anyone seen to act against the Nazis were brutally punished and how him and his family were transported to the gates of Auschwitz where their family unit was torn apart forever. 

Back in the Lake District, Yossi is haunted by thoughts of his missing father and disturbed by terrible nightmares. As he waits desperately for news from home, he fears that Mordecai and Leo - the closest thing to family he has left - will move on without him. When strange men in suits appear, the boys must make a decision about their future - will they remain together or go their separate ways?

Additional teaching opportunities 

Vocabulary

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