Truce

This is a close-up view of the Great War, World War I, and the extraordinary story of the December 25, 1914 truce between German and British soldiers as they laid down their weapons and met in No Man's Land to celebrate Christmas.

This was an excellent book about WW1 and I think that it would really appeal to teens. In only 144 pages the author is able to give a solid background about the complex causes of the war, the way in which young men flocked to join, and finally the gruesome application of industrial weapons capable of killing millions of men in a matter of hours. This book portrays the horror of war through the carnage of life in the trenches.
After painting this harrowing picture, the author tells the story of Christmas in 1914. Through the week leading up to Christmas, the soldiers on both sides of the battle could hear the other side singing and laughing in the trenches. Eventually individuals began to cross "No Man's Land" to share gifts and exchange pleasantries. On Christmas day, large groups of soldiers from both sides came out into the open to sing, share food, and exchange gifts. Despite orders from their superiors to fight, the men took a day off to remember humanity.
This would be a very good book for teens to read. Not only is it important to know the cost of war, but it is important for them to learn the power of humanity. The language is easy to follow, and the pictures are frequent and help the story immensely.

Jim Murphy never disappoints. ( )

This is the story of the First World War, focusing on one amazing event: a Christmas truce where the soldiers themselves stopped fighting spontaneously, met in the middle of the battlefield, and exchanged gifts and sang carols together... while the military leaders were demanding that they fight and threatening them with court-martial if they disobeyed. This book is much more than the story of that truce, though. It explains how the war began, with details from the assassination of Austria's Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, to the plotting of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm to push Austria's Emperor Franz Joseph into bombing Serbian troops on July 29, 1914. From that point on, the countries of Europe joined one side or the other, and all involved were convinced they could have a quick war and get things settled. But as Murphy shows us, they had access to far more powerful weapons than they had in previous wars, and their military tactics were designed for far less destructive weapons. By December, the troops had dug a network of trenches to protect themselves, and the war was at a standstill. Tired, hungry, and feeling that the leadership had failed them, the soldiers on both sides noticed that during quiet times, they could each hear the other side laughing, chatting and occasionally singing... and maybe they had more in common with each other than their governments would like them to think. The Christmas truces were the result of that. The photos and maps included are excellent, especially the ones from Christmas Day. No official military photographers were there, and the photos are from the troops themselves. 7th grade and up. ( )

This is a book for young adults, but sophisticated enough for any age, about various opposing military units in World War I which decided to stop fighting on Christmas Day in 1914, sang carols to each other across the trenches, and even went so far as climb out of the trenches, exchange food and souvenirs for each others’ kids and even in some instances celebrate together. Needless to say, the military commanders were quite unhappy about this fraternizing with the enemy, had it stopped as soon as they could and made sure nothing like it happened next year. A few units apparently tried, but heavy losses suffered by both sides during the elapsed year, as much as the orders, made the efforts nowhere as widespread as the first year. The author also gives a wider picture of the war, such as pointing out that while new powerful weapons had just been invented, no adequate defenses had evolved to match them, which accounted for so many dead, in addition to weather conditions. ( )