War Boy

Story

War Boy is written as a first hand, eye-witness view of growing up in World War II. Based in Lowestoft, Suffolk it tells of a group of friends making the best of the extraordinary circumstances of their childhood. As they encounter both familiar and unfamiliar events in their daily lives, they weave them together to entertain themselves: playing football, bomb shelters, sweetshops, spotting planes and gas masks.

Why we chose it

It is a modern classic that vividly evokes a time and place and a sense of what it was to grow up in wartime.

Michael Foreman is one of the leading illustrators of children’s books who has been working for over 50 years

Where it came from

Michael Foreman grew up in Lowestoft where bombing raids that caused terrible damage were common as planes flew in over the North Sea.

Where it went next

War Boy won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal. It was dramatized and broadcast by the BBC in 2012.

Associated stories

After the War was Over continued the story of War Boy.

Other books written and illustrated by Michael Foreman include A Child’s Garden, The General, Dinosaurs and all that rubbish, War and Peas, Mia’s Story, War Games, Goal, Stubby: A True Story of Friendship and Seal Surfer.

Michael Foreman has illustrated books written by a number of other authors. During a long working collaberation with Michael Morpurgo he illustrated a number of books including The Mozart Question, A Medal for Leroy, An Eagle in the Snow, Not Bad for a Bad Lad, Boy Giant and Billy the Kid.