When the war came home by Lesley Parr

For some the war is still close, even though the conflict is over. Charlie has obvious wounds, Johnny has forgotten everything including his name, and Huw is grieving the loss of his good mate. For Natty, the central character in this book, there is loss of a different kind. Her mother has campaigned too hard for workers’ rights and lost her factory job, they have lost their home and now have to move to the Welsh countryside to live with cousins. Cousin Nerys is the same age as Natty, and Natty is not sure if she will survive the shift and Nerys’ enthusiasm. And she is angry at her mother and wishes she could go home. But where is home? The whirlpool of emotions Natty is feeling eventually leads by accident to a kid-run school-directed program of activism designed to care for students who are struggling to learn because of hunger, as well as some well-placed care and concern for Johnny and Cousin Huw, and renewed relationships and attitudes.

Lesley Parr has written a serious, but child-centric post-war story that is very like Michael Morpurgo’s approach to children’s story writing – serious topics, written with a light touch, but not patronising to young readers. When the war came home addresses a serious aspect of war, the post-traumatic consequences for young soldiers, but in a way that neither minimises the tragedy nor avoids the significance or the sadness just because the story is for young readers. The setting in the Welsh countryside adds the opportunity for Parr to scatter some very Welsh cultural expressions (including some scattered Welsh words with lots of consonants) and Welsh locality names. Hopefully young Australian readers won’t think these are typos, as they are far from easy to pronounce. Some aspects of the story may be foreign to Aussie kids eg school lunches, cruel teachers, Scholarship exams… but this provides opportunity to learn about different experiences at different times and places. The overall result is a very readable story with an element of pathos that can be recommended to male and female readers aged 11+.

Themes: War, War-related injuries, post-traumatic amnesia, resilience, activism, Wales, school.

Carolyn Hull