lunes, 2 de abril de 2012

How war stories inspire children to learn

For many British school pupils, the events of WWI and WWII have not been only learned through studying history textbooks. Many fiction books - often based on true wartime events - have also helped children to understand what happened.

At Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, a new exhibition - Once Upon a Wartime - celebrates novels that have helped youngsters engage with the battlefield horrors and domestic hardships at times of conflict.

Watch this BBC audio slideshow which tells us a little bit about three of the books in the exhibition - The Machine Gunners, Carrie's War and War Horse and answer the questions below.


1 Why do Charles McGill and his friends build a fortress in The Machine Gunners?
2 How does their relationship with the German parachuter end up?
3 What anecdote does the narrator tell about his life as a child in Manchester living near an RAF Ringway?
4 Were Carrie and her brother in Carrie's War happy in the countryside?
5 Why were children sent away from London in WWII?
6 When was War Horse written?
7 Who was interested in the British horses? Why?
8 Who tells the story in War Horse?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript here.