Review: Life During the Blitz, From a Young Boy's Point of View
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 22, 2012
Shelter from the Thunder is a very well written 20 minute or so long short story, set during the bombings of London during World War II.  The story follows a young primary school student named Sam, and it works because Sam isn't an over the top brave kid. He is unpopular and a target of bullies at school, having only really had one friend, that he tells us about in a flashback.  As he does the school drills and other experiences of a young boy in World War II suburban London. He doesn't just tell us the facts, and the way other children react and the way they still bully him during these times makes the tale all the more realistic. He's terrified the shelter his father hand built won't cope well if hit by a bomb and well, you'll just have to read the story to know if his fears are justified.This would be an excellent story for actual students studying World War II to read as Sam is an easily for most to relate to kid.A very different short story to a previous story of Cargill's I downloaded calledSlaughter in Barnaby Close.  There's also two bonus short story (page long ones) included with Shelter from Thunder, about an extra from the Hobbit and an early diary entry by Justin Bieber.  They do seem a bit out of place in this more serious tale but do show the variety of the author's writing.