Top 10 wartime animal books

Megan Rix was born in London and lived in America, Singapore and New Zealand before marrying and moving to the East of England. Her new book is The Great Escape.

For the Guardian she named a top ten list of books about animal heroes of wars through the ages, including:

Terrible Things by Eve Bunting

I first read Terrible Things more than 15 years ago and it has stayed with me ever since. Eve Bunting has written many award-winning picture books; but in this book she focuses on the Holocaust with an allegory set in a clearing in the woods where the woodland animals live in harmony until the terrible things begin to happen. On the dedication page she writes: "In Europe, during the second world war, many people looked the other way while terrible things happened… The Nazis killed millions of Jews and others in the Holocaust. If everyone had stood together at the first sign of evil would this have happened?... It is easier to look the other way. But if you do, terrible things can happen." Stephen Gammell's pencil-drawn illustrations starkly show the Terrible Things as clouds of smoke that come, and leave fewer animals behind each time. A powerful and unforgettable book.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue