“You won’t come with me?” said Joseph.
The boy ignored the question. He was undoing the wooden box, and he took out the little silver sword. “This is the best of my treasures he said. ‘It will bring me luck. And it will bring you luck, because you gave it to me. I don’t tell anybody my name – it is not safe. But because you gave me the sword and I didn’t borrow it, I will tell you.’ He whispered. ‘It is Jan.’
The Silver Sword (1956) by Ian Seraillier is a children’s novel that tells of three siblings and an orphan’s difficult quest to make it from Poland to Switzerland just after World War II. I read it again for the first time since Primary School and enjoyed it just as much.
Alex Raphael 