Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo #Bookreview

Title: Private Peaceful
Author: Michael Morpurgo
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published Date: October 1st 2004
Genre: Historical Fiction, WWI, MG
Page Count:208
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ .5

Goodreads Summary: 
From the Children's Laureate of England, a stunning novel of the First World War, a boy who is on its front lines, and a childhood remembered.

"They've gone now, and I'm alone at last. I have the whole night ahead of me, and I won't waste a single moment of it . . . I want tonight to be long, as long as my life . . ." For young Private Peaceful, looking back over his childhood while he is on night watch in the battlefields of the First World War, his memories are full of family life deep in the countryside: his mother, Charlie, Big Joe, and Molly, the love of his life. Too young to be enlisted, Thomas has followed his brother to war and now, every moment he spends thinking about his life, means another moment closer to danger.

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 My Review:

"The more we sing the more cheery we become, and that's  in spite of all we see - the shell shattered villes we march through, the field hospitals we pass, the empty coffins waiting."

Tommy Peaceful is a young man who has gone off to war with his big brother Charlie and is now trying to survive nights in the trenches by remembering his childhood.

During his childhood, his family always struggled after his father died in a tree cutting accident, that Tommy has always felt guilty for. He tends to follow around his big brother Charlie and Molly who is his best friends, but as time goes on Charlie and Molly start spending more time together and leaving out Tommy in small ways.

Add in a brother who needs help, a rich man who tries to control the whole town, and a mean aunt. The boys are left with only two options, move to a different town, or go to war. Not wanting to make their mother and brother move they join the war.

The war isn't what they expected it to be, and Tommy struggles with it and without Charlies by his side I'm not sure he would have made it.

Overall I did enjoy this story. I don't know much about WWI in general besides the basics. So to learn some of the things that the men had to deal with and how they were treated is just awful. Tommy manages to make it through with letters from home and remembering his childhood. This at first was a little confusing to me, but as it got closer to his present it was easier to understand.

I would highly recommend this book if you're wanting to know a little about WWI.