Shadow Creatures

LoveReading4Kids Says

Inspired by his own family history, Chris Vick has written a compelling and fascinating novel, which not only illuminates a little-known aspect of World War 2 history, but also evocatively weaves in the culture, language, folklore and legends of Norway.

The story is cleverly preceded with a scene from now with Georgy on holiday asking Bestemor (grandmother) Tove and Grandtant (great-aunt) Liva about the old woman encountered in the woods and learning what happened to all of them all those years ago. This demonstrates the point that we do need to capture these stories before the generations that experienced them disappear altogether.

Tova and Liva share the storytelling and their different perspectives on the action as it happened, adds to the dramatic tension and reveals the very different characters of the sisters, who were just 12 and 9 when the German occupation started. They are telling the old woman’s story too, for this is Agna, the free-spirited outsider in their village, hero worshipped and followed everywhere by Liva, who is determined to resist the rules and restrictions imposed by the invaders. With fishing and hunting forbidden, food rationed, books burnt, and the school curriculum Nazified, there is lots to resist.

But hiding precious folktales and illicit hunting gradually becomes a dangerous scheme to get food to the inmates of a brutal prisoner of war camp set up by the Germans on a nearby small island. A powerful story of courage and resilience that really shows what Norway went through and the lifelong impact it had on such young lives. With an unmistakeable veracity, this a story that needs to be told and one which will leave an indelible impression.

Joy Court

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