It’s like she melts. Her shoulders go down and her face softens. She kisses his cheek and practically skips out of the kitchen.” The Primary School Library Alliance is calling on the government to match-fund the private investment it has brought into helping primary schools c... WW I has long been a topic of interest for Ottoman scholars, but the Ottoman home front has been largely ignored or, at best, unevenly treated. In this book Akın (Tulane Univ.) shows that the length and scale of the war meant that everyone in the Ottoman empire was affected....Akın's research was extensive (he even usedoften-ignored folklore), and it enabled him to provide vivid descriptions ofthose left behind struggling to meet the state's growing material demands, succumbing to starvation and banditry, and becoming increasingly alienated from the state." Huw was just fourteen when he decided to lie about his age and sign up for a soldier’s uniform and an adventure, and the result is disastrous. Although I knew of this happening (in probably most wars) I haven’t come across a character so young who has lived through it, to show a reader the results. Oh Huw, my dear precious Huw - a boy who signed up for war too young and much before his time and returned too much older than his time. It was so painful to see the little glimpses that showed us how affected he was by the war. I loved the little simple ways in which Natty tried to get closer to her seventeen-year-old cousin, Huw. There was such an aching softness to his behavior, that made the small moments they shared have such a glow to them, as he opened up to her about his times as a soldier, as she learned about the things that helped him feel better of the memories of friends lost during the war. ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Nerys, her best friend Owen and Natty soon have something much bigger and closer to their hearts (and stomachs) to contend with. Natty slowly begins to understand how her Mum sees the world – where she sees a wrong, she tries to put it right. Natty is absolutely raging and she is furious with her Mam she has to leave everything she knows behind and she is quite awful to her Mam. Although in these times I think I would have been the same.In the final chapter Akin discusses the refugee and deportee question together. He draws attention to the great number of Muslim refugees who fled the eastern Anatolia region from Russian advances. He also shows how they were treated differently than the Armenian population. While the state struggled to manage the influx of several hundred thousand Muslim refugees, it sought to provide them with food, shelter, and transportation. In contrast, the Armenian population was uprooted permanently in a bloody deportation campaign, with no hope for return.

In her sophomore Middle Grade book, When The War Came Home, Lesley Parr once again touches my heart with a story that is both light-hearted and still poignantly beautiful.

There’s so much more I’m bursting to say but I wouldn’t want to risk spoiling others’ enjoyment of this glorious book. Thank you Lesley for another amazing story that I will cherish and will stay with me for years to come. I really enjoyed solving another anagram mystery too.

If you haven’t already read The Valley of Lost Secrets, you absolutely must! I realised I didn’t write a post for this – I often find the books I enjoy the most the most difficult to write a review for. Congratulations Lesley on another fantastic book. I look forward to seeing what direction your future books take and hopefully I get to review these for you before release too. Sometimes it’s hard to put into words just how good a book is to do it justice and The Valley of Lost Secrets is one of those books. Reminiscent of Goodnight Mister Tom and Carrie’s War, it deserves to be a future classic. Natty designates a drawer in the bureau of her new room for her cousin indicating that she and Nerys's relationship is not at an end. This relationship is one of the things Lesley Parr does particularly well. There's a line early on about adults always assuming that children the same age will get along, but in fact the girls have their ups and downs of annoyance, jealousy and friendship-building that's one of the most realistic-feeling parts of the book.Set in the early 1920's, this wonderful novel explores the after effects of World War 1 on both the surviving soldiers and the families they return to. Natty lives in the small Welsh village of Libanwy with her mother, Ffion, who is a vocal supporter of women’s rights. When her outspokenness causes her to lose her job at the local factory, she and Natty are forced to move to the neighbouring village of Ynsyfach to stay with relatives.

The First World War has ended, but it hasn't gone away. When Natty has to move to a new village, she meets two young soldiers who are still battling the effects of war. Huw can't forget the terrible things he's seen, but Johnny doesn't even remember who he is. I am proudly Welsh, despite having moved out of Wales a long while ago, and reading this book basically just felt like going home. I love all the 'Welshism's' in the language that's used, every time someone said 'mun' I giggled to myself because my mum says it every few minutes! The book captures the essence of the valleys and their inhabitants so perfectly.Natty’s fury at her mother’s activism diminishes slowly through the warm welcome of her cousins’ family. It seems they and the village of Ynysfach are keen to integrate the newcomers into their lives. However, it’s ‘Johnny’ at Talbot House, who provides most comfort and interest to Natty. It seems his experiences at the front in WWI have left him as an unknown, somebody being treated to remember who he is and where he comes from. Is there some way that Natty might help?