These links show the original reading lists. Inclusion is not a guarantee of suitability for your child.
Peter Lantos - Author
A child’s-eye memoir about displacement, family love and survival, moving from wartime adventure-like discoveries towards the realities of bombing, Bergen-Belsen, starvation, illness and bereavement.
Peter’s journey is presented through the perspective of a five-year-old, including discovery, bombing and life in Bergen-Belsen.Exploratory / explanatoryExploratory / explanatory: the book explains or explores the subject without an established evaluative position.Exploratory / explanatory: the book explains or explores the subject without an established evaluative position.
How the book presents it: The child’s viewpoint appears to frame, rather than minimise, the worsening reality of war, terror and life in Bergen-Belsen.
Talk about: How clearly does the book connect Peter’s personal experience with the wider historical context?
Family love and survival
Peter travels with his parents; his father dies, while Peter and his mother survive and return home.FavourableFavourable: the book presents this theme approvingly or positively.Favourable: the book presents this theme approvingly or positively.
How the book presents it: The stated emphasis on love between mother and son and enduring hope presents their bond as central to survival.
Talk about: What forms of care help Peter and his mother endure, and how does the book represent hope after loss?
Illustration and difficult memory
The illustrated edition depicts a child’s wartime journey against a background of terror, starvation and family deaths.Provisional readingProvisional: the reviewed evidence does not establish how the book treats this theme. The evidence gap is listed under Confidence & Basis.Provisional: the reviewed evidence does not establish how the book treats this theme. The evidence gap is listed under Confidence & Basis.
Talk about: Which scenes are shown most directly, and whether does the visual treatment leave space for a child to pause or ask questions?
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Why It May Be Worth Reading
Its illustrated memoir form may help a young reader approach historical suffering through one child’s experience, while inviting thought about love, hope, survival and how childhood understanding changes.
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What Deserves Attention
The book includes wartime bombing, terror, starvation, infection and the deaths of Peter’s father and grandmother. These experiences may merit a calm check-in, especially around what the illustrations show.
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A Conversation Worth Having
How does the child’s understanding of the journey change, and how do the illustrations shape the move from discovery to danger?
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Reading Approach
Read alongside the child rather than rushing through the historical events; pause after the journey’s changing tone, name feelings without demanding answers, and return later to questions about family, memory and hope.
Confidence & Basis
Theme indicators describe how the book presents a topic; they are not a verdict on the whole book or your family's values. Confidence reflects how much book-specific material was checked. Only part of the book information was available, so some details remain unconfirmed.
What remains unconfirmed
Childhood perspective and historical violence: The extracts do not show how much background explanation or historical detail the finished book provides.
Family love and survival: The extracts do not establish the full emotional development of their relationship or the ending’s detail.
Illustration and difficult memory: The actual illustrations, panel sequence and degree of graphic detail are not provided.
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