Michael Morpurgo
writes a lot of books about war. Several of them also include animals. A fair
number, too, include those unbelievable coincidences in which our friend
Charles Dickens also indulged. War Horse,
for example, irritates me as a book, a film and a show, because it ends
with a deus ex machina - Joey and Albert ending up in the same place? Come on,
now.
We forgive Dickens
and Morpurgo. After all, we crave happy endings. The horse delights, anyway, in
whichever form we consume the story, and we love the other characters as well.
A Medal for Leroy also includes war, an animal (several
actually – various generations of a Jack Russell called Jasper), a happy ending
and characters we grow to love. Yet it does not rely on any strange
coincidences. This could have happened to anyone. Leroy, Michael, the two
aunties and mum Christine are people to whom the reader can relate. The ending
is satisfying and brings closure but is not a rip-roaring “happily ever after”
affair. It is all the more believable and satisfying for being thus.
There are some parallels
between Leroy’s life and that of Walter Tull, the first black player at
Tottenham Hotspur and the third professional black player in the UK. Normally
soldiers had to be “of pure European blood” so both Tull and Leroy were unusual
in being allowed to fight in the Great War. Leroy is not Tull, however: he was
more for The Arsenal.
This is an ideal
crossover book. It is very accessible to fluent, junior school children, may
appeal to teens as it has young people in it and will certainly not be too
simplistic in content for adults.
Morpurgo is after all a master story-teller. 
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