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Shadow Creatures

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Book Synopsis

Tove was 12 and Liva 9, when the Germans occupied Norway. They remember everything as if it happened yesterday. A middle grade story of bravery, resilience, rivalries and shadow creatures in the night.

Mose and her daughter Agna are incomers in the village, treated with suspicion. But young Liva, left out of the secrets her sister Tove and brother Hakken share, idolises Agna and follows her everywhere. Unwittingly, they lead the German soldiers to a perfect island. Once a haven for picnics and story-telling under the midnight sun, it is transformed into a grim POW camp. This is an unlikely place to find buried treasure, but it’s there.

Friendships are made and broken, family trust is turned upside down and lives change forever as Tove and Liva recall their childhood experiences of living through WW2 in a story that moves from light to darkness to light again.

Our Review Panel says...

There is a wealth of WW2-inspired fiction for KS2 readers and it was refreshing to have a story that is set in a different country than those often written about – in this case Norway.

I really enjoyed the opening to the story, which sets the scene of young Georgy listening to his Grandmother and Grand-Aunt retelling the story of what happened: this makes the reader feel like they are part of the story, listening to Tove and Liva recall what life was like during that time.

The dual narrative throughout the main story offers a chance for children to gain more insight into the two main characters and their emotions, motives and thoughts. This is also what would potentially make it more challenging for LKS2 or less confident readers.

The story also spans the majority of WW2, allowing children to experience a narrative in which characters grow and change throughout.

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Shadow Creatures

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