11 Plus Exams Forum

70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32832980" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On this topic, some children may enjoy reading Escape from Shangri-la by Michael Morpurgo

http://michaelmorpurgo.com/books/escape-from-shangri-la" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a close connection to this event ...

Youngest dd has been encouraged to read Michael Morpurgo's books to improve her vocabulary.

Was trying to work out the connection between Shangri La which I only know as a Five star Far Eastern hotel chain and Dunkirk. Apparently the word according to wilkipaedi is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains.This makes the read even more intriguing.

quasimodo wrote:Youngest dd has been encouraged to read Michael Morpurgo's books to improve her vocabulary.

She has been well advised! ... but maybe read the book with her to be able to talk about the books? They are excellent starters to discover and understand world history... and you may feel that she may have better to wait one year or two before reading 1 or 2 titles. My son read 'private peaceful' a bit top early for my taste as I read the book after him... I would have put it aside for a bit if I had known... but he survived anyway!!

JaneEyre wrote:

quasimodo wrote:Youngest dd has been encouraged to read Michael Morpurgo's books to improve her vocabulary.

She has been well advised! ... but maybe read the book with her to be able to talk about the books? They are excellent starters to discover and understand world history... and you may feel that she may have better to wait one year or two before reading 1 or 2 titles. My son read 'private peaceful' a bit top early for my taste as I read the book after him... I would have put it aside for a bit if I had known... but he survived anyway!!

It was "private peaceful" and "war horse" which were two of her personal school reads which she would read aloud to us in the evenings as part of her homework.She was only 9 and 10 which are difficult reads at those ages.She and we survived.Both of the films were far more enjoyable.

I find some of these comments rather flippant.

We are talking about an event where many died and many more were damaged for life. Thousands never got over what they saw during this part of WWII and suffered for the rest of their lives.

Please don't trivialise - give thanks for the bravery of many who fought to protect us from invasion and tyrany.

Guest55 wrote:I find some of these comments rather flippant.

They are comments from a generation that is a little younger than ours, G55, and these books are now the texts that pass the message of WWII to future generations.

Sorry, but to really get across it has to be captured by wonderfully descriptive and imaginative authors such as Michael Morpurgo if it is to have any impact. Old B&W movies and history books have little relevance to the current generation, other than for major celebrations. Even they have little meaning for other than being a chance to wave flags.

Sorry Guest55. I can see now that my comments can be seen as inappropriate but I was really referring to other things in the book than the war itself, but it is true that I have wrongly worded my sentences… hence your feeling. I do apologise!

Of course, I am extremely grateful for all those who died or battled and were tragically wounded, physically or mentally. My own family have been deeply affected too (though not at Dunkirk and rather during WWI which meant my grandfather couldn't fight during WWII).

You cannot compare 'surviving' reading a book to this event ... many students I've come across commemorate Remembrance day with great dignity and thankfulness.

I think there are crossed posts between you here?