Occasionally, very occasionally, you read a book that slips so perfectly into the canon that it seems as if it was always there. That you read it as a child, reread it over and over, until it forms part of you along with Anne Shirley and Jo March, the Fossil sisters, Jo Bettany and Veronica Weston and Nicola Marlowe... the Skylarks' War is such a book. As one of our most celebrated birds, in literature, poetry, art and music, the Skylark hardly needs an introduction. On either side of the line were the armies. Neither was winning, although not because they didn't try. [...] Absolutely ordinary people made considerable efforts to kill other absolutely ordinary people whom they had never even met. Crowley points to one important line that he wrote: "Not all faggots bump themselves off at the end of the story." It's voiced by the character he based on himself.

The Skylarks’ War - Waterstones The Skylarks’ War - Waterstones

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about World War One or anyone who likes historical fiction in general. It was a great read and I really enjoyed reading this book. The writing flowed well but the plot got boring near the end. The description used was very detailed. It is an ideal story to introduce young children to important time periods in history in a way that helps them experience a small slice of it themselves through the characters. On a personal level my favourite character is Peter, who feels ashamed of himself that he cannot go off and fight due to a large injury on his leg. I find him the most interesting because at the start he’s very stubborn and is upset that his mother had died. But when he goes to boarding school he makes a good friend and his personality changes where he becomes happier, kinder, and more accepting towards his family. This book has given me a new interest in WWI and has inspired me to learn more about it. So I would definitely recommend this book to other students who learning about that period, or even if they aren’t!Peter injures his leg when he is young, meaning he cannot enlist at the outbreak of war. He is studious, a fatherly figure for his younger sister, and is determined to do something for the war effort.

The Skylarks’ War Quotes by Hilary McKay - Goodreads The Skylarks’ War Quotes by Hilary McKay - Goodreads

Things didn't get better; they got worse.And all this point-of-view shifting away from Clarry's story gets tangled up with the desire of the boys on the front to spare the people at home generally - everyone's desire to spare Clarry specifically - Peter's rage that Rupert distracts Clarry from her work - and so this book almost feels unsure of what its focus should be. This story engaged us from the start, in fact the first part of this book that covers the characters childhood was perfect. We started with the birth of Clarry and then with the loss of one parent and the other three not being interested the three children are pretty much on their own. Such real characters, wonderful descriptions, happiness, sadness and such humour. We loved the descriptions of the perfect summers enjoyed by Rupert and his cousins Peter and Clarry with grandparents who also didn't really want them but gave them the freedom to play outdoors and make their own decisions. He was talking about plays in which most of the time, when there was a gay character, they wind up committing suicide or getting beaten to death or sent to prison," Crowley says. "There was always a terrible fate for anybody who was gay. And so, I was determined not to have that happen, here in this."

The story gives readers a vivid glimpse into the trials and tribulations of life on the Home Front during the First World War, from the fears for relatives fighting overseas through to the more daily practicalities such as food shortages and children having to take on jobs in their home as their mothers went out to work to fill the roles vacated by the men away at war. The differences between schooling now and then feature heavily too. Rupert is a childhood friend of both, one of those universally liked people whose warmth and sunshine is felt by all. He goes off to war, and his demise and inevitable difficulty with what he has seen is poetically written. From the time of the [story], I learnt that soldiers were tagged so they know who they were if they died.