Thom reviewed The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Review of 'The Silver Sword' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Found this on a list of children's classics, read with daughter (11). The story of a Polish family, broken apart in WWII. The first several chapters are about the father, who escapes from prison and heads for relatives in Switzerland after returning to a rubble-strewn Warsaw. While there, he doesn't find his family but does find a young boy, who takes a Silver Sword (really a letter opener) as a token to prove who he is should he find the other children. The rest of the story is about his three children, left alone after the mother is taken to a detention camp. They find the boy with the sword and make their way to Switzerland also, among many adventures.
The perspective of the Polish family shows much of the war, from Nazi invasion to Russian liberation. As the children travel to Germany, we see the last days of the …
Found this on a list of children's classics, read with daughter (11). The story of a Polish family, broken apart in WWII. The first several chapters are about the father, who escapes from prison and heads for relatives in Switzerland after returning to a rubble-strewn Warsaw. While there, he doesn't find his family but does find a young boy, who takes a Silver Sword (really a letter opener) as a token to prove who he is should he find the other children. The rest of the story is about his three children, left alone after the mother is taken to a detention camp. They find the boy with the sword and make their way to Switzerland also, among many adventures.
The perspective of the Polish family shows much of the war, from Nazi invasion to Russian liberation. As the children travel to Germany, we see the last days of the war, then the American and French occupation zones. Descriptions accurately depict the damage of battle, including before and after in Warsaw. For the setting, this story avoids bullets and death of soldiers, but then much of it was behind battle lines. The characters have definite strengths and weaknesses, and grow quite a bit over the years.
Still published by Scholastic, this story got a very high rating from my daughter, and I have to agree.