Thanks for letting me review it! My students like this genre.

I love pretty much everything Morpurgo writes (Kensuke's Kingdom being my favorite). He can take a historical event and create a story around it and do so in manageable, accessible text for some of our younger readers. This was starting off good but as I was riding my elliptical I saw a plot twist coming and was like "dang that is so good". Then, in typical Morpurgo fashion there was also a good twist at the end too. Really liked this.

This is a based on a true story, historical fiction book for middlegrades and up. Barney and his mother are traveling on a train when it needs to hide in a tunnel to avoid bombing by the German planes overhead. With them in their car is a stranger who proceeds to tell them an amazing story about Private Billy Byron. This character is based upon a real soldier from WWI by the name of Private Henry Tandy. The story he tells is of his friend Billy and all the wonderous and amazing things he did in the war that earned him several medals. He also told of the German soldier "Fritz" as they were all called, that he let go at the end of the war. He did not want to kill one more person. Would his decision come back to haunt him?

This was a relatively quick read and one that I didn't want to put down once I got past the first chapter. The character of Billy was so well written, it was as if you knew him. This is a great story to read with children ages 10 and up. The discussions you could have, the predicting and alternate endings if things had been different are sure to elicit fantastic conversations and ideas. A must read for history students learning about the World Wars.

Michael Morpurgo has returned with a beautiful and provocative story that is sure to fire many classroom discussions just the way Lois Lowry’s The Giver did. Barney and his mother are fleeing London for the countryside in 1940 after the home is destroyed by a bomb. When the train they are on is strafed by German aircraft, they take refuge in a dark train tunnel. The boy is terrified, and a man seeing his fear, begins to tell him a story. The story is about a World War I British soldier named Billy, who hated killing, and only did it when absolutely necessary. At the end of the war, Billy found himself face to face with a German soldier, by rights, he should have killed the man, but tired of killing, Billy left the German go. It wasn’t till long after that Billy discovered that the young German soldier was Adolph Hitler. Billy must now wrestle with his conscience and whether the decision he made, was, at the time, the right one. This is an incredible story, Morpurgo is one of the most gifted children’s and YA authors in the world

An Eagle in the Snow by Michael Morpurgo is a book designed for a middle school student. It is not a highly adventurous book, but I think will hold students attention while they read the story. The end has a bit of a twist which will leave them talking about what is real and not real.

Barney is a boy forced to leave London with his Mom during the Blitz of London in 1940. The train has been attacked by German Airplanes. Luckily they are able to hide in a tunnel to avoid the shooting, but the tunnel is dark and stuffy. This is hard for Barney because he doesn’t like the dark. An older man near him tells Barney a story to take away his fears. The story tells about a soldier from the past who may have been able to prevent WWII. Was the story real? Well you will have to read it to find out!

An Eagle in the Snow reads quickly and may prove to be a good read aloud for some classes. The book opens up good discussion questions about the killing of soldiers and what is real.