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  • War Pigeons 1: WP & Me

  • A Boy and His War Pigeon in WW1
  • By: Adrian Beckingham
  • Narrated by: Rafe Beckley
  • Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)
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War Pigeons 1: WP & Me cover art

War Pigeons 1: WP & Me

By: Adrian Beckingham
Narrated by: Rafe Beckley
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Summary

Written in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, WP & Me is a story relevant to our times in the COVID era and beyond. It follows a London family as they go through the ravages of war upon them. Standing in huge shopping queues outside stores, dealing with rationing, changes in the schoolyard or the workplace, travel restrictions, and an unruly media often confusing the population - all this they must cope with, not to mention the sense of fear everywhere. But instead of being asked to stay behind closed doors, families saw their men sent to fight.

Tommy and "Pigeon", two teenage brothers, begin their war trying to sign up for "the Pal's Army". Caught up in the general excitement that saw the coming war as "the big adventure", they want to fight for England on The Western Front. Everyone at first thought the war would be over by Christmas.

The older brother Tommy gets through to become one of 250,000 child soldiers who joined the British Army during World War I.

Pigeon is turned away by the army. London becomes a very different place to the home he knew. Marching soldiers fill the streets, to later be replaced bomb craters as German "Taube" fill the sky. More and more men volunteer for the forces - until in the end those who did not volunteer are sent to fight against their will.

One day Pigeon finds a wounded pigeon and takes to home. Once it is strong enough to fly he sadly sets it free, but it does not fly away. WP stays around his home. Over time Pigeon begins to raise a whole flock of pigeons as pets - but this is against war regulations. Will he be arrested as a spy?

Pigeon finds himself traveling across submarine endangered waters to France, serving as another underage soldier. Can his carrier pigeons make a difference to the outcome of the war? Will Pigeon ever find his older brother Tommy, who has gone Missing In Action?

Only by living through the reality of war, has Pigeon been able to fully appreciate peace.

©2018 TheManFromStoryMountain (P)2021 Adrian Beckingham

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Excellent Story and superb narrator.

I listened to this with my 3 children aged 6-9 and we all loved it.
It's a story about WW1 but also about peace. It doesn't shy away from the horrors of the first world war, but it's written in a way that isn't scary, and it is informative and hugely interesting, as well as being a fantastic story.
It is also really child friendly as it's told through the eyes of a child.
I'd recommend this to any teachers who are teaching WW1 to use as a class book too.

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Listener received this title free

Poignant

Although I am not in the target audience for this book, I started to listen, quite fittingly, on Remembrance Sunday, and soon became enchanted by this story of 2 teenage brothers caught up in the horrors of the First World War. Told by Pigeon, named because of his crooked teeth and shape of his mouth, the story spans the whole of the war. Pigeon, too young at the start of the war, eventually ends up in France towards the end of the war with his beloved pet pigeons, helping to relay vital messages.

I became totally immersed in the story. I even learned a few things about the war which I hadn’t been aware of. At the end I’m not ashamed to say I shed a few tears. The book would make a great learning resource for schools as despite the horrors portrayed it is written with children in mind, but as an adult I loved it.

The narrator, Rafe Beckley, had exactly the right voice for the book and did a superb job.

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