Though based on true events, the characters were made up for the purposes of this story. It was quite interesting - though very unbelievable! I just can’t believe all these things really happened … but I guess they did! Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Finally, they get word that their father is alive. He has made it to Switzerland. Edek and Ruth are determined to find him, though they know how dangerous the long trip from Warsaw will be. But they also know that if they don't make it, they may never see their parents again. Born in London, Serraillier was educated at Brighton College, and took his degree at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He became an English teacher, first at World War II. It was during this period that his first published work appeared, in the form of poetry for both adults and children. In 1946 his first children's novel was published. It was followed by several more adventure stories of treasure and spies. His best known work, The Silver Sword, was published in 1956 and has become a classic, bringing to life the story of four refugee children and their search for their parents in the chaos of Europe immediately after World War II.Malewski, Anne. (2021) Growing Sideways in Twenty-first Century British Culture: Challenging boundaries between childhood and adulthood. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company 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. He remains with the neighbor, Mrs. Krause, for a few days. She tells him to go find his wife, because the children are surely gone. Joseph cannot bear to leave. A story crafted around real life examples. This novel tells the story of three Polish siblings (Ruth, Edek and Bronia) search for their parents, after their schoolmaster father is tossed in jail for hanging Hitler's picture facing the wall. He escapes from prison to find his house destroyed by fire and his family gone, and meets a streetwise orphan, named Jan. Ruth manages to find shelter, becoming a "mother" to her siblings, and they decide to go to Switzerland to find their remaining relatives, crossing Poland and Germany along the way. Jan joins them on their quest, helping them survive in a world gone mad, even as the family is separated and reunited along the way. Along the way, they are assisted by generous, caring people: soldiers, farmers, etc. Would I have enjoyed the story as a child? Probably, but it wouldn't have become a favourite, one of those books I read again and again. Did I enjoy the book as an adult? Yes...

We invited you to let us know which titles you thought were missing. Here's our list of some of the great books that didn't make our final cut, but that you told us were your favourites. Whilst in this passage Joseph defers to Jan’s knowledge and experience, the perception of children’s ages changes throughout the story, according to whether the story is being told from their perspective or through adult eyes. In an Alice-like process of shrinking, Jan’s presence is diminished once more when viewed through the eyes of a British soldier: “A boy stepped out of the crowd, one of the thousands of urchins that lived?about in the ruins here – about eleven or twelve years old, I should say, but you can never tell with these kids, they’re so undernourished” (1956, p.83). Philip Nel’s observation, that “The precarity of displacement amplifies the vulnerabilities inherent to childhood, making young people feel their liminality more acutely” accurately describes the situation faced by the young protagonists of The Silver Sword, in which the naturally blurred boundaries between childhood and adulthood are problematised by the need to act and behave with maturity beyond their years ( 2018, p.359). This juxtaposition is particularly jarring in the portrayal of Ruth. Here she is described by an army officer: “She’s a remarkable girl, quiet and self-assured, with the most striking eyes – they have a deep serenity, a sense of purpose and moral authority quite unmistakable. No wonder they look up to her as a mother, and a leader, too” (1956, p.86). Joe Wolski is an American soldier of Polish descent; because of this, he identifies with the children right away. He drives them to safety and assists in their being found by their father. The Burgomaster Edek calls for them to keep moving and they finally descend a twisted fire escape. They hurry far away from the fire. The pale dawn breaks and they shelter in a cellar of a bombed house.The night the Nazis come to take their mother away, three children escape in a terrifying scramble across the rooftops. Alone in the chaos of Warsaw, they have to learn to survive on their own. Throughout the novel, Serraillier juxtaposes the hatred and destructive nature of Nazism and the people who supported it against the kind and helpful people who rejected it, people who were willing to take a chance, even risking of arrest and death, to help the children However, when German voices sound out the next morning there, is no time to run to the shed, so Joseph climbs into the chimney. He is almost discovered, but soot puffing out of the chimney leads the Germans to run away for fear of dirtying their uniforms. An abandoned rowboat nears them on the dirt flooding river. Ruth reaches for it and succeeds in grabbing it with Jan’s help, but she curses him bitterly for caring more about his dog than people. She tells him to go to Ludwig, and that she and Bronia don’t need him.