The Unicorn and The Lion - Shirley Hughes - too old for 4yo?

[sleepwhenidie]

I bought this today for my DS who has reached the stage where he will sit and listen to a longer story over a few nights. It is about a little boy being evacuated during the war and his daddy is away in the army.

It is a lovely story and ends happily but having read a dozen pages to DS tonight (he was pretty engrossed) I am now getting worried that it is too old for him and he will be scared by the whole idea of bombs and being sent away from us! He has a "See Inside London" book that covers the bombings during the war and people sheltering in tube stations etc, he seemed interested and accepting of that, he also went to sleep without any problems tonight - do you think I am being paranoid or should the book be put away for a while (like 2yrs)?

I love this story, as I do most of Shirley Hughes' work, particularly with the black and white panel illustrations at the side of the page. However I think it deals with a very very emotional subject, being separated from parents (with homesickness, bed wetting, oooh just thinking of it makes me feel shivery). I am just not sure I'd want to read it to my 5 year olds, unless it was in the morning and I had time to explain it all. We talked a lot about evacuation when the anniversary was in the news, but I am not sure how I'd deal with all the questions I'd get (like who would give him clean sheets if his mummy wasn't there). Hand on heart, I think this is one of those picture books to share with slightly older children - 6 or 7 and up?

thanks Clare, think you might be right...think it may go missing for a while.

at the sheets, good to know what you are valued for!!