Lord of the nutcracker men - Iain Lawrence

A poignant look at the irrationality of war and its effects.

The new wooden soldier was screaming. His eyes were huge holes, his mouth like a wound. He seemed to be stretching his hands towards the sky. "He's laughing," said Auntie. "Johnny, he's laughing".

It's 1914 and Johnny's father has gone to war, to the mud and trenches of France. He has made Johnny an army of toy soldiers, and Johnny fights hard with them, like a real soldier, like his dad.

But soon, the letters that arrive from France tell the ugly truth - and the new soldiers Johnny's father carves and encloses begin to show the strain. Suddenly Johnny is afraid. When he fights his battles out in the garden, could he be controlling his father's fate, and even the outcome of the war itself?