The Machine Gunners

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Westall creates a cast of characters you love and care about - apart from the ones you're meant to hate – and occasional unnecessary descriptive aside (the size of the woman pushing the push chair is totally immaterial), a world you almost wish you were living in. urn:lcp:machinegunners00west_2:epub:275f6d8f-4e32-4591-8f33-987290a59c9c Foldoutcount 0 Identifier machinegunners00west_2 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t1gj25n5p Invoice 11 Isbn 9780140309737

The book is set in the North East of England near to where I grew up so it was nice to read about places I've been to. Westall paints a very realistic picture as to what life was like during the blitz; the food shortages, the constant stress of being bombed, the fear of being invaded. the language layout, it was like old English, for example Yee harty ol' feed. insted of what we say now ' mean harty feed bro ' Concealment Equals Cover: Averted. From the outset, one of the most major concerns the authorities have about the missing machine gun is that, in the wrong hands, its bullets can accidentally kill people some way off by going through walls. Indeed, towards the end of the novel, the police sergeant pursuing Chas and the gun gets a lead precisely because a bullet from the weapon lodged in someone's wall. A boy's dream, becomes a nightmare. Well, perhaps his dream was a nightmare all along. Chas McGill is about thirteen in 1940. He lives in a small Tyneside town, in the industrial north-east of England, which is subjected to terrible bombing raids. The tea-time call-out is the worst. The air-raid siren goes just as supper is dished up and everyone must run for the Anderson shelter. Do you take your egg and chips with you or leave them until later? Sometimes you are in the shelter all night. Do you lie awake all night wondering if there's going to be a direct hit? Or do you fall into an uneasy sleep at last? And when you come out in the morning, how do you feel when you see that your friend's house simply isn't there any more?

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My grandfather prompted me to read this book when I was about 11 and I thought that it was absolutely brilliant. On all the times I've read it since, it has lost none of it's original lustre and, if possible, has got even better now that I understand everything better. The adventures start in Garmouth, a town in England, when Chas finds a machine gun from a dead German bomber. The story is excitingly fast and fun, but more than that, it can teach you a lot. The Bully: Boddser Brown, the Garmouth Grammar School bully and Chas' most avid rival in the great game of collecting war souvenirs.

Friend or Foe?: The Home Guard averts this trope with the Polish force after realizing that there was no enemy invasion and that the Poles were merely acting on their own to the rumors. This is later played straight when the Poles, having failed to find any Germans, aid the police in searching for the children, who assume they are German by their language and fire upon them, causing both sides to believe they are German invaders. I have finished reading The Machine gunners finally! it was a really good book, it was very interesting, especially when they found the machine gun. I mean if you found a machine gun you would go mental, haha. Overall this book was a great read, i read it in 3 days of the holidays. i would definitly read another book from Robert Westall,But, you know, was it actually any good? This is a children's book after all, granted an award-winning one. But I'm not 10-year-old me anymore....