Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
July 1, 2019/in Information Picture Book 10-14 Middle/Secondary /by Ellie
BfK Rating:
BfK 237 July 2019
Reviewer: Clive Barnes
ISBN: 978-1786036278
Price: £16.97
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Genre: Information Picture Book
Age Range: 10-14 Middle/Secondary
Length: 48pp
Buy the Book

D-Day

Author: Michael NobleIllustrator: Alexander Mostov

Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary, this tells the story of D Day partly through the eyes of twenty real life participants, whose experiences are used to provide insights into aspects of the invasion. There is a good range amongst the twenty, from front-line soldier to back-room boffin. Most are on the Allied side, but the Germans are represented by two field marshals and a bewildered guard taken prisoner in one of the first actions of the invasion. There are four women, among them intrepid war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and a French aristocrat, Brigitte de Kergolay, whose chateau is requisitioned first by the Germans and then the Allies. There is a good balance, too, between these individual experiences and a general account of the invasion and its aftermath. However, it’s a book which doesn’t live up to its promise. It cheats a little in its presentation. This, I imagine, might have something to do with the costs of doing it properly. So, while the book promises us individual accounts, there is nothing in quotation marks. The author speaks for everyone. Each participant is introduced in a box on the top left hand corner of each double page spread, with a photograph. Sometimes these photos are obviously of the persons themselves: from a personal album or, for the field marshals, a more official source. But sometimes you have no idea if the person concerned is in the photograph accompanying the account of the role they played. Is Helen Denton one of the typists in her photograph? Is Helmut Roehmer one of these German prisoners of war? The reader has no idea, since the text is silent. And why is Martha Gellhorn accompanied by Japanese military here? The reader will never know.
Much of the text is in quite small print found in boxes dotted about the double page illustrations by Alexander Mostov. And, while I can understand the problems there might be in illustrating accounts of war, these almost caricature human figures seem particularly inappropriate, a strange accompaniment to photographs of the actual actors in the event.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png 0 0 Ellie http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Ellie2019-07-01 19:29:072021-03-18 19:31:16D-Day

Search for a specific review

Author Search

Search







Generic filters




Filter by Member Types


Book Author

Download BfK Issue Bfk 272 May 2025
Skip to an Issue:

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

‘Exceptionally talented illustrators’ Shortlist announced for the 2025 Klaus Flugge Prize

May 15, 2025

Next stop Shakespeare’s Globe – finalists of Poetry By Heart competition 2025 announced

May 8, 2025

School Library Association announces Information Book Award longlist and new nationwide Book Club

May 7, 2025

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2025 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
Good Boy The Good Thieves
Scroll to top