Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 by John Hendrix

 

Title: Shooting at the stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Author and Illustrator: John Hendrix 

Major Awards: No Major Awards Found 

Age group: Ages 7-12

 

Summary: 

This story is about a British soldier who writes to his mother during World War I to describe to her how British soldiers and German soldiers joined together to spend Christmas Eve together. Despite their endless fighting beforehand, they decided to join and celebrate this holiday together. But at the end of the story, they went to their separate trenches to wait for their major’s orders to fight once again. 

Evaluation: 

Appropriate grade levels for this book would be 3^rd to 7^th grade. I loved the illustrations all throughout the book and the way Hendrix put the British soldier’s letter as part of the illustrations because it made it more personal. I love all type of Christmas stories, so I really enjoyed the way he mixed a little bit of fiction and real facts in his book. I would definitely use this book in my classroom as a fun read aloud during the Christmas holiday. Even though it contains a very serious historic event as WWI, it still gives students that little bit of hope and happiness that Christmas brings.