The Silver Sword

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When the cage stops, a flashlight illuminates Joseph’s face. Joseph is holding a large chunk of chocolate that appears like a gun in the dark; he says he has a revolver pointed, and if the person makes a sound, he will shoot. The voice swears in Polish, not German, so Joseph’s manner becomes gentler. He tells the man to unload the cage and to take him to where he lives.

Ian Serraillier (September 24, 1912 - November 28, 1994), was a British novelist and poet. Serraillier was best known for his children's books, especially the Silver Sword (Novel) (1956), a wartime adventure story which was adapted for television by the BBC in 1957 and again in 1971.Across the water are the gloriously green hills of Switzerland and the majestic Alps behind them. Ruth gasps; she has never seen anything so incredible. She asks if Jan can come out, and Joe complies. Jan has no more fight in him, and when he sees the mountains he bursts into tears. The Silver Sword was published in the United States under the name Escape from Warsaw, and is still available from Scholastic by that name. I prefer the original name, The Silver Sword since it has so much meaning the central characters in the story.

However, when German voices sound out the next morning there, is no time to run to the shed, so Joseph climbs into the chimney. He is almost discovered, but soot puffing out of the chimney leads the Germans to run away for fear of dirtying their uniforms. Full thoughts here (and yes, this is really my Escape from Warsaw review but the British title is The Silver Sword and I like that way better): At the ruins of his home, Joseph finds a silver letter opener in the shape of a small sword. He also meets a young boy there carrying a wood box. Eventually he befriends the boy, Jan, who shows Joseph how and where to safely jump a train to Switzerland. Before he leaves, he gives the silver sword/letter opener to Jan and asks him to tell his children, should he run into them, that their father has gone to their grandparents in Switzerland to find their mother, and to follow him there. Jan puts the sword in his wooden box for safekeeping.

LoveReading4Kids Says

Escape from Warsaw by Ian Serraillier, originally titled The Silver Sword, is the adventure story of a family which was separated during the war. Their father protests Nazi Germany’s tyranny and is taken to a prison camp which he later escapes from. Their mother is taken away to work for the Nazis. This leaves Ruth, Edek, and little Bronia alone, trying to survive in a hostile land.

After Joseph was arrested, the Germans took his wife to work in the labor camps. Now their three children, Ruth, Edek and Bronia, who managed to escape the house after Margrit was taken, live in the cellar of a ruined house. Food is sparse, but Edek is a gifted smuggler and brings what they need. Ruth starts a school in the cellar; when she mentions this at the soup kitchen, she is given school supplies and a Bible.Popular Western series for kids that was made along similar lines to The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid and other successfully syndicated US shows of the late 1950's. recaptured. He also crossed paths with a British Army officer named Mark, who wrote a letter to his wife about the chimpanzee and its antics. In Appenzell, Switzerland, Danes, Swedes, Brits, Austrians, Germans, Italians, and the Swiss build an international children’s village. The children who were abandoned and orphaned now have a place to call their own and try to forget the misery of the war. Joseph and Margrit become house-father and house-mother in the Polish house. The family helps build their large, comfortable home, and settles in with sixteen Polish children. On the day that he was due to collect them, it had not rained for several weeks and there were storm clouds in the sky. The children decided to walk to an outcrop along the shore of the lake to see the boat coming across the lake. They crossed a dried up stream to get to the outcrop, but Edek was feeling tired, so they left him on the other side of the stream resting in an old boat. Before they could reach the outcrop a gigantic thunderstorm broke, sending down a heavy downpour which turned the stream into a raging torrent. They then saw Edek in the boat out on the lake and Ludwig going berserk with fear behind them. They managed to get into a boat that had come downstream and try and rescue Edek. Ruth fainted but Jan chose to rescue Edek and leave the dog to his fate.