A Medal for Leroy

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army.

A novel about families, identity and loss by bestselling award-winning author of WAR HORSE.

Michael doesn't remember his father, an RAF pilot lost in the war. And his French mother, heartbroken and passionate, doesn't like to talk about her husband. But then Auntie Snowdrop gives Michael a medal, followed by a photograph, which begin to reveal a hidden history.

A story of love and loss.

A story that will change everything - and reveal to Michael who he really is...

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Poodle I GREW UP IN THE 1940S IN LONDON, just after the war. When I was a boy, my friends called me "Poodle." I didn't mind that much. I'd have preferred they called me Michael--it was my real name, after all--but they rarely did. I didn't have a father, not one that I ever knew, anyway. You don't miss what you've never had, so I didn't mind that either, not much. There were compensations too. Not having a father made me different. Most of my pals at school lived in two-parent families--a few had three or even four parents, if you count step-families. I had just the one parent, Maman, and no brother and sisters either. That made me special. I liked being different. I liked feeling special. Maman was French, and spoke English as if it was French, with lots of hand waving, conducting her words with her hands, her voice as full of expression as her eyes. We spoke mostly French at home--she insisted on it, so that I could grow up "dreaming in both languages" as she put it, which I could and still do; but that was why her English accent never improved. At the school gates when she came to fetch me, I'd feel proud of her Frenchness. With her short dark hair and olive brown skin and her accent, she neither looked nor sounded like the other mothers. We had a book at school on great heroes and heroines, and Maman looked just like Joan of Arc in that book, only a bit older. But being half French had its difficulties. I was "Poodle" on account of my frizzy black hair, and because I was a bit French. Poodles are known in England as a very French kind of dog, so Maman told me. Even she would call me "my little poodle" sometimes, which I have to say I preferred to " mon petit choux "--my little cabbage, her favorite name for me. At school I had all sorts of other playground nicknames besides "Poodle." "Froggie" was one, because in those days French people were often called "frogs." I didn't much like that. Maman told me not to worry. "It's because they think we all eat nothing but frogs' legs. Just call them 'Roast Beef' back," Maman told me. "That's what we French call the English." So I tried it. They just thought it was funny and laughed. So from then on it became a sort of a joke around the school--we'd even have pickup soccer teams in the playground called the Roastbeefs and the Froggies. In the end I was English enough to be acceptable to them, and to feel like one of them. Maybe that was why I never much minded what they called me--it was all done in fun. Most of the time, anyway. Somehow it had gotten around the school, and all down the street, about my father--I don't know how, because I never said anything. Everyone seemed to know why Maman was always alone--and not just at the school gates, but at Nativity plays at Christmastime, at soccer matches. It was common knowledge in school and down our street, that my father had been killed in the war. Whenever the war was spoken of around me--and it was spoken of often when I was growing up--voices would drop to a respectful, almost reverential whisper, and people would look at me sideways, admiringly, sympathetically, enviously even. I didn't know much more about my father than they did. But I liked the admiration and the sympathy, and the envy, too. * * * All Maman had told me was that my father was called Roy, that he had been in the RAF, a Spitfire pilot, a flight lieutenant, and that he had been shot down over the English Channel in the summer of 1940. They had only been married for six months--six months, two weeks, and one day--she was always very precise about it when I asked about Papa. He'd been adopted as a baby by his twin aunties, after their sister, his mother, had been killed in a zeppelin raid on London. So he'd grown up with his aunties by the sea in Folkestone in Kent, and gone to school there. He was twenty-one when he died, she said. That's just about all I knew, all she would tell me, anyway. No matter how much I asked, and I did, and more often as I grew up, she would say little more about him. I know now how painful it must have been for her to talk of him, but at the time I remember feeling very upset, angry almost toward her. He was my father, after all, wasn't he? It felt to me as if she was keeping him all for herself. Occasionally after a soccer match, or when I'd run down to the corner shop on an errand for old Ma Merritt who lived next door to us, Maman might say something like: "Your papa would have been so proud of you. I so wish he'd known you." But never anything more, nothing about him, nothing that helped me to imagine what sort of a man he might have been. Sometimes, on the anniversary of his death or on Remembrance Day perhaps, she'd become tearful, and bring out her photograph album to show me. She couldn't speak as she turned the pages, and I knew better then than to ask any more of my questions. It was as I gazed at him in those photos, and as he looked back up at me, that I really missed knowing him. In truth, it was only ever a momentary pang, but each time I looked into his face, it set me wondering. I tried to feel sad about him but I found it hard. He was, in the end, and I knew it, just a face in a photo to me. I felt bad about it, bad about not feeling sad, I mean. If I cried with Maman--and I did sometimes over that album--I cried only because I could tell Maman was aching with grief inside. Some nights when I was little, I'd hear Maman crying herself to sleep in her room. I used to go to her bed then and crawl in with her. She'd hold me tight and say nothing. Sometimes at moments like that I felt she really wanted to tell me more about him, and I longed to ask, but I knew that to ask would be to intrude on her grief and maybe make it worse for her. Time and again I'd let the moment pass. I'd try asking her another time, but whenever I did, she'd look away, clam up, or simply change the subject--she was very good at changing the subject. I didn't understand then that her loss was still too sharp, her memories too fresh, or that maybe she was just trying to keep her pain to herself, to protect me, perhaps, so as not to upset me. I only knew that I wanted to know more about him, and she wouldn't tell me. Copyright © 2012 by Michael Morpurgo Excerpted from A Medal for Leroy by Michael Morpurgo All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Inspired by Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British army, War Horse author Morpurgo examines WWI from another angle with this novel narrated in the present day by a man named Michael as he looks back at his boyhood. As a nine-year-old in 1940s London, Michael dreads visiting his paternal aunts Mary and Martha, nicknamed Pish and Snowdrop: the trips only remind Michael and his Maman of his late father, Roy, an RAF pilot. Five years later, after Martha's funeral, Mary sends Michael a framed photo of his father; when the glass breaks, Michael discovers a hidden letter from Martha. What follows is her account of her time as a nurse during WWI in Belgium and a secret love affair, opening Michael's eyes to his family's untold history and unrecognized bravery. Martha's letter to Michael, which makes up the second half of the book, addresses important topics directly, including racial prejudice and unwed motherhood. The novel's elegant structure and quiet, retrospective narration-both Michael's and Martha's-bolster this story about the importance of knowing the truth about one's heritage. Ages 10-14. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-8-Michael lives in London in the 1940s with his French mother, who became a war widow before he was born. On a regular basis, they visit Auntie Pish and Auntie Snowdrop, who raised his father. A letter written by Aunt Snowdrop arrives several years after her death, and as Michael reads it, he discovers the truth about his heritage, about his family, and about the bravery of his grandfather, who was black. This letter creates a story within a story, in which Morpurgo deals honestly with themes of war, death, and the racial injustice. According to an author's note, the novel is inspired by the true story of Walter Tull, a black officer in the British Army in World War I, who, although courageous, was never awarded a medal due to the color of his skin. Even though it's short and simple to read, appealing to reluctant readers, this novel offers readers of all ages a beautiful multilayered story of compassion, loyalty, and courage.-Denise Moore, O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Morpurgo, author of War Horse (2007), returns with another middle-grade historical drama. Londoner Michael doesn't know much about his grandfather Leroy, who died in WWI as one of the rare black members of the RAF. There is a mystery surrounding Leroy that even Michael's mother cannot explain. Then he receives a belated gift a framed photograph of Leroy. This photo, however, contains a secret that, for the first time ever, will tell the forgotten tale of this brave soldier. Here the narrative shifts to a letter that takes us back to WWI, and it's a large chunk of pages, which does slow the book's momentum. It's a fine story, though, even if Leroy's goodness is a bit too perfect to be believed. In fact, the entire book is squeaky-clean, which may make some eyes roll, even while being that warm, gentle read that others savor. Regardless, readers will be moved by Michael's plan to reverse an old unfairness because he was black, Leroy never got his medal, but that's about to change.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2014 Booklist

Horn Book Review

This tale about family secrets and well-intentioned lies is inspired by the real-life experiences of the first black British Army officer, who was prejudicially denied a medal for his actions during WWI. Though the focus of the book is on family relationships and the stories people invent to protect their loved ones, Morpurgo also offers an understated, unexpectedly gentle meditation on prejudice. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.