I am David.

[CronnyRash]

The story of the Russian boy who excapes a concentration camp.

It's been many many years since i read it, being about 10 at the time i didn't fully understand the content, what age would you say this is suitable for?

Quick hopeful bump

I was thinking about this for my nearly 11 yo. I think it's fine to read it as a simpler journey to safety type story and for the resonance to happen later. I love this book so hoping dd will too.

I read it in the first year of secondary school.

I read it in primary school. It's difficult but not gory. It could lead to good discussion about humans and their differences good and bad.

Ds loved it a couple of years ago. He would have been 7/8yo.
But he has a good interest in WWII and the history around that time.
I think I'd have advised hm to wait a couple of years if I hadn't found him half way through but he had a full grasp of the situation because he talked about it quite a bit.
The dog dying made him cry a lot though.

Such a beautiful book. One of my all time favourites. Maybe best for 10/11 plus though.

A wonderful book. DS was 9 when we read it together. The Silver Sword is another favourite of a similar ilk.

I entered a competition in my local library when I was about 9 and was given a copy of this book as a prize. I loved it and I will read it again. The Silver Sword is also a favourite.

Ds read it last year at 9. The teacher read it to us at 8 / 9 in primary school and I remember it vividly. It's a wonderful book and I cried when DS unwrapped it (it was a present from his grandfather).

I love that book! But I think it's a lot darker than the Silver Sword - I think at least age 9 or 10 whereas Silver Sword is OK at 7.

Thanks for all your input, and for not pointing out my silly spelling mistake in the Op.

I didn't even notice the typo! Oh, The Silver Sword - I loved that book! And Avalanche!!!! (Which I always felt was like a little sequel).

Umm if you re-read the book you will realise: its not WWII, he's not Russian (Danish I think), and he's coming from Italy/Albania, and its set in some "dystopian future".

I read it first year of secondary - and my not very academic class were gripped.

I'd still like to know the pother book I read, which wasn't this or THe Silver Sword but was about a boy escaping across Europe in WWII, but he ended up crossing Spain to Portugal.

CronnyRash I did state above that at 10 i didn't fully understand the concept.

I can't get the hang of name changing.

Just read this with my 9 year old. He loved it (I cried). I remembered reading it at school at the same age (and crying). David is interred in Bulgaria in a camp for dissenters during and following the Russian revolution.

Thanks everyone, am off to buy these now!

its not WWII, he's not Russian (Danish I think), and he's coming from Italy/Albania, and its set in some "dystopian future".

I don't think it's WW2 but I don't think it's a distopian future either. He is told "Go south till you reach Salonika" which puts him in one of the eastern European countries behind the iron curtain and could be at any point between the end of WW2 and the collapse of East European Communism.

His destination is in Denmark but I don't think there is any implication that he is Danish - just that this was a reasonable place for a refugee from Eastern Europe to have settled.

I think his mum is Danish, but had been living behind the iron curtain with his father who was presumably Bulgarian or even Russian.

His mum lives in Denmark but if she is Danish that will have been due to acquiring Danish citizenship after escaping from wherever-it-is. The text is clear that there was a love-triangle with "the man", and David's mother and father - there is no implication that they weren't all originally from the same country.

Just found my copy that l bought through a school book club in 1970. Brilliant book I was 10 when I read it - must read it again l