DEAD END KIDS

HEROES OF THE BLITZ

Reviews for Dead End Kids

Wow. Dead End Kids is a tale of true bravery. I read the story with a sense of genuine admiration at a group of young people who step up to the plate in a time of crisis and do it with next to nothing in the way of resources and in defiance of the adults. You hear a great deal a=of the indomitable spirit of Londoners during the Blitz but Dead End Kids really brings it home. And you can't help but love Josie, who not only defies the authorities and her mother to help, but also her brother and the older boys, who want to exclude the girls. Way to go Josie!

Ashley writes in his usual easy and accessible style, but the book is chock full of accurate historical detail and dialogue. It's an immersive and an exciting read.

There really was a group of teenaged firefighters in the East End during the Blitz. And they were called the Dead End Kids and they did take the pressure off the fire service by putting out the smaller fires and they really did drag unexploded bombs into the Thames. Two of them died protecting their community. It makes me feel weepy just typing that. Why aren't these young heroes better known? Hopefully this Ashley story will spread the word . I certainly won't forget about the Dead End Kids.

(Jill Murphy - The Bookbag 2^nd July 2015)

To Josie Turner and her gang of friends the war is something that is happening around them. But then, in 1940, the Blitz starts - 57 consecutive nights of bombing in the capital alone.

This young group of pals do something incredible: they decide to form a unit of unofficial firefighters. They help to rescue people from rubble, drag unexploded bombs into the Thames, rescue the dock horses, and extinguish small fires.

It's an incredible story of courage, of growing up quickly as they do what they can to help their fellow humans while their very existence is at risk.

I loved the characters. Josie is a strong 13-year-old Londoner, defying those around her who try to stop a girl doing her bit, and her brother Len is a natural organiser, intelligent, and courageous.

Award-winning author Bernard Ashley writes for young readers with such clarity, bringing the characters' lives into sharp focus. It's a fantastic read - accessible and easy to digest, and it leaves you thinking long and hard about what children living in war zones have to contend with.

(Jayne Howarth: Children's Book of the Week - Financial Times Regional Newspaper chain)

This is a gutsy story about the East End of London during the early years of the Blitz. The story is inspired by a group of young people who did fight fires during the war, but in his foreward Bernard Ashley makes it clear that his characters are not based on those living then.

Josie Turner is a bit old for gangs really (but she) determines that just because she is a girl shouldn't mean she can't form a group to do the same.

Once the reader is accustomed to the cockney dialect (this would read aloud well) the story moves quickly. Bernard Ashley's vivid descriptions take the reader into the heart of the East End. Josie's character in particular stands out.

Young people of 12+ will get the most out of this story and be full of admiration for their forebears.

(JF - Books for Keeps July 2015)

For Josie Turner war was just a game she played against rival gangs in the East End, but now it is 1940 and air raid sirens fill the sky, bombs tear through the city and the real enemy is more menacing tha a group of unruly school kids. While the characters may be fictional, Bernard Ashley's novel is inspired by the actions of the real life 'Dead End Kids' of Wapping.

From the first page to the last, the plot unfolds at a relentless pace. The story is told from the perspective of Josie, a plucky 14-year-old who refuses to be shunned from the war effort on the basis of her gender. Adolescence is made more complex against the backdrop of bombed out London and Josie?s fight to save her city is intertwined with her first experience of romance and loss that are inevitable when growing up in a world at war.

Despite the book's young target audience, author Ashley brings the horrors of the Blitz to a vivid reality. The story is told through rich cockney dialect and immersed in historic references that add a strong element of realism to an otherwise innocent teenage novel. Ashley's vice is utterly unique. This compelling story is a must-read for young fans of war novels although, with its sophisticated writing, it could easily be enjoyed be an older audience as well. Ashley's Dead End Kids depicts a war that was not confined to the battlefields a war fought on the streets, fought in the flames of bombed out houses and a war fought by children.

(Cuckoowriters.com September 18, 2015)

A wonderful author hard-hitting and realistic, his books really show his knowledge of his city. London is at war and as the Blitz rages, children like Josie and her brother Len face the same dangers as the adults. Terrified, they showed the courage that East End children showed during those dark days.

Superbly written, you are really drawn into the horror of the time and will marvel at the resilience show by Londoners, young and old.

(parentsintouch.co.uk July 2015)

TORRENT

THE WAY IT IS

Nadine hates her new life. She doesn’t speak the language, she doesn't understand what’s going on at school, and more than anything, it’s just not home - especially since her father isn’t here with them in the UK. But it just wasn’t safe in Goma anymore, not with the uprising and the violence of the rebel soldiers. So Nadine tries to find something in her new life that will remind her of happy memories of Africa... A touching and sensitive story about a refugee girl in Britain.

Published by Barrington Stoke
ISBN 978-1-78112-369-0
£5.99

2014 saw the publication of Bernard’s ‘Shadow of the Zeppelin’– a powerful look at the effects of war and the nature of courage.

From the ‘home front’ the Castle family’s story moves to France – to Ypres and the Somme – while in London teenager Freddie Castle’s life is turned upside down by Zeppelin L31 and by family conflict.

Serving in that fateful Zeppelin is Ernst Stender, a Jewish conscript. Such men flew without parachutes, and the dreadful question on each mission was, if the airship were shot down, did you jump, or burn?

Orchard Books
ISBN 978-140832–727-2
£6.99
also available as an E-book

Bernard’s popular novel ‘Little Soldier’ was fifteen years’ old in 2014, celebrated with a new cover.

When Kaninda survives a brutal attack on his village in East Africa he joins the rebel army, where he’s trained to carry weapons, and use them.

But aid workers take him to London where he fetches up in a comprehensive school. Clan and tribal conflicts are everywhere, and on the streets it’s estate versus estate, urban tribe against urban tribe.

All Kaninda wants is to to get back to his own war and take revenge on his enemies. But together with Laura Rose, the daughter of his new family, he is drawn into a dangerous local conflict that is spiralling out of control.

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children’s Book Award.

Orchard Books
ISBN 9781 – 86039-879-7
£6.99
also available as an E-book

You must have done a lot of research for this book. Did you enjoy it and/or find it difficult?
I like doing research. As I say to students in schools, it's like being a reporter or a detective. Not only can you find out what you want to know, but sometimes unexpected doors are opened that can change the shape of a story. Research for this book was not easy, though. People didn't want to talk to me – and here I mean people who should have wanted to talk to me, like some of the agencies involved in working with youth crime. But I found the local police very helpful – talking with them led to a significant change in my plot – as were some teachers, and school students themselves. As well as making personal contact I also read a lot about modern gang culture in the UK – in books, magazines, internet and newspapers.

The book deals with the immediate aftermath of a shocking bereavement for a teenager with little family support. Do you think teenagers who are bereaved or simply face the neglect Amber and Connor experience are given enough support from society?
It's unwise to generalise. Those who have plenty of loving support can still take wrong decisions, and some who have none can shine like Amber. But a local structure should be there, brought into play through the school. In my time with the ILEA and the London Borough of Greenwich we had a cross-agency system that worked well for children in distress; and I didn't have to decide whether to allot money to it – or pay to patch a hole in the school roof.

Dawn Feldman is the straight talking and inspirational deputy head at Amber Long’s school. She makes some damning comments about the education system failing Connor Long. As a former head teacher in the area in which many of your books are set, what are your views on this and the education system today?
Many of us can name the teacher who made a difference to us; as we can name the teacher who has made a difference in one of our children's lives. Such people are special – and we have to pity those children and students who never come across a teacher like that. In our school in south London we took in children who had been expelled by other heads. It wasn't always easy, and whatever was achieved was due to the teachers who worked day to day with those children; but never once were we let down by them; and none of those children was ever 'moved on'. Sadly, the setting up of an over-rigid national curriculum, the imposition of literacy and numeracy strategies which took learning away from children's interests, the SATs tests that have distorted the syllabus, and league tables which set school against school in the parental arena, these measures have deprived children of learning as pleasure, and encouraged some heads to 'get rid' of the disaffected pupil who won't score well. Happily, amongst all this there are charismatically-led schools that have put up two fingers to the system, and have carried on with the business of real education.

The book ends with a nail biting yet satisfying climax. What would your hopes be for Amber Long in the future?
I know what happens to Amber after the book shuts. For a real person I would have to hope, but for a character of my creation I can know. The answer lies within the book – because I put it there.

For younger readers Ragged Bears has republished two Justin Perfect stories:

Bernard's new book for 2013 comes from Troika Books in May.




When Jack tumbles off the Kent train with the other wartime evacuees from London, no one in the village wants to take him in. Then Lady Ashwell patriotically sweeps him off to the Hall, where Jack learns how to hold a knife and fork and her son Clive learns how to fight dirty - and when events in the night turn nasty, the boys team up to unmask a sinister enemy.

ISBN 978-0-9573013-4-4

Troika Books £6.99

SAY HELLO TO NERISSA, KOMPEL, MILLY, UGASO AND KIM

They're all girls who make a difference, heroes in their own ways, each rising to a serious challenge - colourful characters who've featured in Bernard's books and joined here by Milly Webster in a new story 'Stronger than Sprite'.

ISBN 978-0-9570357-2-0

£6.99

Ashley Chappel Books



(Sales: Target Sales Ltd. 0843 289 3266 office@targetbooksales.co.uk)

Bernard is proud to announce his new teenage thriller

DIVE BOMBING

What happens to Charlie Peat's life with his famous rock and soul parents when terrorists put his life in jeopardy? In this thrilling, multi-layered book Bernard sensitively explores the effects of urban terrorism on young people today. 'Very gritty, very tense, very exciting, very emotional – some amazingly powerful scenes that really stick in the mind.'

Bernard's new novel comes in May.

'Time after time Bernard Ashley delivers, really delivers.' (The School Librarian quarterly journal)

Orchard Books

ISBN 9781408313923

£5.99

JUSTIN AND THE GRANDAD WAR
When his grandad from Australia moves in and takes over his bedroom, Justin declares war to drive him away. But grandad's got a few tricks up his sleeve, too. (Originally published as Justin Strikes Again).

ISBN 978-1-85714-403-1
Ragged Bears £4.99

TEN DAYS TO ZERO

the story of Fran Scott, the kidnapped daughter of the Home Secretary, who will be killed if she can't be found in time.

ISBN 9781846169671
£5.99

Like FLASHPOINT the stories involve TV star Ben Maddox - who makes dramatic news as well as reporting it.

SOLITAIRE

Who is Pax - and how did he get to the uninhabited Indian Ocean island? Can he survive - and will he ever be found?

'A shipwreck, a secret and a shocking discovery reveal the true depth of the casualties of war. Haunting memories and hidden truths reveal a silent betrayal in a thrilling and moving adventure.'

ISBN 9780746081372
£5.99

Flashpoint
The third 'Ben Maddox' adventure thriller.

Working undercover for Zephon TV, Ben gets himself taken on as a stagehand for the European tour of She-Pirate, a musical starring rock star Flame. Suspecting that drugs are being brought into Britain by members of the company, Ben discovers a repugnant and shameful business - while caught up in the dangerous consequences is Paul Filey, a young East End actor who, in his first professional job, has personal battles to fight. ISBN 9781846160608
Orchard Paperback Original £5.99