Feather Wars

by Sally Grindley

Sam is being bullied at school. A quiet, creeping insidious form of bullying that has Sam terrified of his persecutors. Sam is also very angry with his father, as it appears that he is the cause of the bullying. Sam's father keeps pigeons and the bullies find this amusing. When Sam's father has to go off and help in the D-Day landings, and Sam is left at home with his mother and little sister, things begin to change for him. He begins to see things in a new light and finds a new resolve to deal with the problems around him. This is an accomplished and finely rendered novel that gently brings to life some complex issues in the life of a young boy.

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book deserves more attention as it shows you the reality of bullying and growing up. it tells you how bullying can affect mental health and why many people keep quiet about it, and how hard life is. it also shows the importance of family and friends, and how important relationships are as well as love. it was a really good read and i saw that as sam got older, he had more responsibilities. it shows how hard the children suffered in war, with having to grow up quickly to look after their own parents and younger siblings. i loved the writing style of this book, as it displays sam's feelings as messy and anxious, that it made me feel like i was in his situation, rather than reading it. absolutely amazing! i really recommend this book! :)

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book covering bullying,
Family life and WWII. Book was recommended to me and it certainly was worth the read. Recommend to those students in need of a little extra support as well Year 7+

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was written beautifully and it covers bulling

[anon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I could hardly ever put it down!

[Nova · Rating 3 out of 5]

A boy is bullied, lives in fear and can't tell anyone. Set in England during WW2, Grindley's book tells the story of how the war impacts on a family.