War Game is a historical book set during the time of the First World War. It follows four friends Will, Freddie, Billy and Lacey on a journey through a short period of their lives, it starts with them playing football in the fields of Suffolk and ends with them fighting in the war.

It all starts with the boys deciding to sign up for the war. The next day they went down to the town hall and enlisted. A few days later they were training in the King's Royal Rifles.

When the boys arrive in France they start to realise that war is not going to be such an adventure. In the next few days they were in the trenches on the front line. Each day they would have to ' stand-to' with frozen feet and numb fingers. Also in the morning there would be something called morning hate.

On Christmas Eve the British Tommies and the Germans sang carols together. In No-Mans land on Christmas day the element of game comes in and the Brits and the Germans have a great game of football with unknown numbers and no ref.

Next day theirs no singing and the friendly Germans had been replaced and the English were under heavy fire. In the dead of the night the boys go out in a small raiding party and don't return.

I found this book enjoyable, easy to read and very moving .The pictures were very useful and helped tell the story. I also got to know the characters despite the small size of the book. Michael Foreman has not written many books but this is a very good read.

By Lewis

Title: War Game
Author: Michael Foreman
Summary: Will, Freddie, Lacey and Billy join up to the War thinking it would be marvellous but when they get there it was a huge disappointment, no uniforms and poor food. They set off on a boat to in the War but…at Christmas time the Germans put some lights on a quantity of trees, this led to the sides making friends. The fighting turned into many games of football. When a sergeant arrived it was back to fighting. Will’s friends were sadly killed and Will was wounded, the last line is Will closed his eyes.
My opinion: I think this was a great read and very dramatic. I thought Michael Foreman captured the atmosphere very well and the book was very enjoyable.
Mark: 10/10

By Amy English

Puffin Books republished this novel by Michael Foreman in 1995. It was written in memory of the author’s young uncles who all died during the First World War. It was an excellent short story telling the tale of four young friends who join The Kings Royal Rifles and were sent to France to fight for their country.

However Michael Foreman tells the story from the boys’ point of view and shows how their adventure was certainly not a game, although he often brings their favourite game of football into his book.
The boys left expecting to see the world and to be home by Christmas although “Will wasn’t so sure.”
It wasn’t long before they found out what the war was really like. They saw “exhausted, ragged sitting in the mud,” and “wagons full of wounded soldiers on their way back to England.” The first time they were on sentry duty they discovered that the humps and bumps in the landscape were actually dead bodies. It was definitely not what they had been expecting.

The author uses Will’s thoughts to help the readers understand how the soldiers might have felt. Will dreamt of home and how the pigs in the byre lived in more comfort than the British army.
During the final attack, when the friends charged towards the German trenches, Will blocked out the terror by imagining they were all racing forward in a football game. When Freddie was hit he saw him ‘dive full-length, then curl up as if clutching a ball in the best goal keeping tradition.’

The book also shows how ridiculous war sometimes seemed to be to the soldiers. One day they were shooting each other, the next talking to each other, singing, playing football and cutting each other’s hair. This tells us that the soldiers didn’t fight because they wanted to but because they were forced to.

As well as looking at the horrors of war the story also includes a few humorous incidents. An example of this is when the soldiers were riding through France on a London bus and someone kept ringing the bell and shouting, “Next stop Piccadilly Circus!”

The book is also brilliantly illustrated with black and white drawings on nearly every page. It is easy and enjoyable to read and gives an honest picture of war. It really makes you think about what it would have been like in the trenches during the Great War.

I would definitely recommend this book to others so that they can also find out that war is certainly Not a GAME.

By James