Armistice Runner (Conkers)

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The only negative thing about this story was that the old day language could have been better and the description of the old day could have been older and there could’ve been more of it. I love how Lily learns that she shares her fitness, speed and eye for navigation over tough terrain with her great-greatgrandfather. During an emotional visit to her gran’s house, Lily manages to connect with her gran over her interest in running and is pleasantly surprised to receive a box of running logs that once beloved to her great-great-grandfather, Ernest.

Anyone who has witnessed a loved one’s decline after a diagnosis with Alzheimer’s will know it is brutal and heartwrenching to see. On a visit to her gran, who has worsening Alzheimer’s, her gran gives Lily diaries from Lily’s great grandfather who was also a runner but before World War One. I also thought that the gran disappearing was a bit random and a bit out of place in the book as it wasn’t really an action book, so it was a bit weird.Intrigued, Lily becomes quickly drawn into Ernest’s first-hand account of his journey from being a young fell-runner just like Lily to signing up to fight on the front lines in France. This story will pull on your heartstrings, but it also makes the history and experiences of soldiers during WWI more accessible, understandable, and easily digestible for teenagers.

Tom Palmer was a reluctant reader as a child and credits articles about football with getting him into reading. Sheʼs struggling to compete in her fell-running races and, worse, sheʼs losing her gran to Alzheimerʼs.I learned a lot more about how hard the conditions were in the trenches and I didn’t know they sent runners for messages, I always thought they sent carrier pigeons! Lily told her grandma that she was a runner and her grandma snapped back into reality and started to tell her about her grandfather, Ernest. Lily has a great-great-grandfather who took part in the World War, she discovers that he wrote diaries when he was in the War and decided to read them. My daughter is a fell and crosscountry runner (as am I) and I wanted the story to come from the point of view of a girl like her and the other keen children who enjoy running cross country and on the fells. The atmosphere and setting of World War Two Russia are brought vividly to life through Anastasia: she’s a young woman full of hope and dreams, yet entirely a product of her country.

After she discovers that her great-great-grandfather wrote and kept diaries of his running and journey throughout World War I, Lilly reconnects with her grandmother and is very inspired by the diaries. The chapter in the story which most stands out for me is how the different characters that like running and different sports show their emotions through running (this makes them try and fight harder to get what they want).I would recommend this book to any high school pupil due to the fact that it is really entertaining to read and it drags you out of the present and teleports you back to WW1. I didn’t like the character Tim because his personality and depicted age was very confusing and changing. There are lots of books set in the first world war, but this one is unusual because it links it very much with the present, and you learn far more about the logistics of war and how the war was ended, then you do about the actual fighting. These books about World War I will offer young readers a range of different perspectives on the conflict, ranging from picture books to teen novels there's something here for everyone.

She is then given his notes and diary and through these we are swept into the trenches in the Great War. Through both stories Palmer brilliantly brings together and draws parallels on the themes of family, friendship, rivalry, revenge and loss. Palmer has crafted an emotional story spanning several generations, and you'll want to be there, right to the finish line.As always Tom's story sets a scene that draws you in from the beginning and keeps you enthralled until the end. Lily is a young girl who enjoys running in fell races and filling in the details in her running log.