Love this book! It gives the factual account of the "Christmas truce" that spontaneously occurred in 1914. German and Allied troops in the trenches on the battlefield in France celebrated Christmas by calling an unofficial truce for the day. Enemy soldiers met in "no man's land" and exchanged food rations and played games and talked. Commanding officers were not pleased and fighting resumed as normal the next morning. Reportedly, soldiers fired not at each other, but "at the stars" the next day. This would be an excellent read-aloud for a middle school of high school history class studying "The Great War" as it was called at the time. It could promote interesting discussion about the causes of war and what it means to the average soldier. More than just a holiday tale, a smooth introduction to the first modern war that students don't seem to know much about. Beautiful illustrations and a mix of handwritten and typeface for the letter the young British soldier is writing home about the unusual event 100 years ago will engage the young reader. Even though this book is fiction, there is plenty of background information and back matter and even a photo from the event. So sad that the war continued on four more years.
Illustrations are so very powerful and bring the story to life.
—mirena22
The story of the WWI Christmas truce. Beautifully illustrated.
—audrey
I love this story from World War I!
—khumaira
What's wrong with people?
—simple_beauty96
