Letters from the Lighthouse: 'THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION' Guardian

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Emma Carroll clearly put a lot of research into writing Letters from the Lighthouse. It lends itself very well to teaching a WWII topic to a class, as the prolific use of wartime terminology and speech does a fantastic job of educating the reader on specific aspects of the war. I read through the book beforehand and then timed my teaching to coincide with the book so that my children were able to better visualise what I was teaching them. Class Comments The story might tread similar territory to other books set around this time, but I feel it’s important to continue to teach youngsters about this bleak period. Your KS2 children will have the opportunity to punctuate the text using colons and also identify when a colon has been used accurately.

February, 1941. After months of air raid bombings in London, Olive and Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast for their safety. Before they leave, their sister, Sukie, goes missing during an air raid, and Olive is determined to figure out what happened to her. While in Devon, Olive begins to unravel the mystery and finds out that her sister is more connected to Devon than she realized. Emma Carroll is my 8 year old daughter's favourite author. After reading all of Carroll's books, I have to say that she is one of my favourites too. I get impatient waiting for my daughter to finish the books so I can read them, and she gets impatient waiting for me to finish so she can talk about them. I felt transported into World War II: the rushing when there was an air-raid siren, why some children wanted to be evacuated and why some children did not, living with rationing and experiencing different lifestyles once evacuated.

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The book does not feature heavy setting descriptions. Instead, Emma Carroll increases her use of descriptive language at key points, heightening the impact on the reader. An example of this comes early in the book, when an air raid hits London. Her sudden escalation of setting at that particular moment, paints a vivid, gritty picture of life in London during WWII, making the overall scene resonate in a much deeper, more meaningful way. I enjoyed reading this book. I found the characters really interesting and there were some really exciting twists and turns but at times I found the plot a little bit confusing! I'm not sure if the history in the book was realistic as I think that Britain did allow refugees to come into the country in the second world war. I am already very interested in WW2. I would like to read more books by Emma Carrol and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. When Olive and her little brother Cliff are taken to the cinema as a treat by their older sister Sukie they find themselves in the midst of an air-raid, and Sukie, last seen by Olive talking to a young man, has vanished. I especially enjoyed this book because I have such an interest for World War II. I would recommend this book to history lovers and gutsy people. Adult characters initially treat a downed German pilot in a threatening manner, including spitting at him.

This resource is aimed at UKS2 touches on the sequence of events, character quotes, giving explanations from the perspective of the officer, adverbials of time, recounts and more… does. An awkward silence ensues which Lily tries to rescue them from with talk of the Lighthouse . Mr. Ramsay groans and sighs, and Lily inwardly feels that she is a failure... Animation director: Stefan Wernik. Technical director: Matt Ebb. Animators: Jeremy Davidson, Lee Salvemini. Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments

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The story is told from the perspective of an evacuee named Olive. A main focus of the story is the growing friendship between Olive and a Jewish refugee named Esther. At first, Olive is unsure about Esther as she is different to the other children and comes across as cold and uninviting. However, as Olive listens to Esther talk more about her lived experiences as a Jew in Austria and then as a refugee in England, Olive starts to see how she initially misunderstood Esther and begins to appreciate how brave and courageous she is. I think we can learn a lot from this friendship as it shows us that prejudice and discrimination can be overcome by empathy and mutual understanding.