The Books

Nisha's War

by Smith, Dan

ISBN: 9781912626755

Malaya, 1942. Nisha's home is destroyed by war and she and her mother, Amma, flee to her father's ancestral house in England, perched on a cliff top on the cold Northern coast. When Amma falls gravely ill, Nisha is left to face her formidable grandmother alone. Grandmother's rules are countless, and her Anglo-Indian granddaughter is even forbidden from climbing the old weeping tree. But when a ghost child beckons Nisha to sit under its boughs, and promises her Amma's life in return for three truths, its pull proves irresistible...

Reviews

Dara - Outwood Academy Kirkby - 2023

I love reading Nisha's War because it was very descriptive with amazing use of characters but why I put it as a 4 star is because it had too many adjectives at the beginning that made it hard for me to understand what was going on at the beginning. Overall a Good Book!!

Tam - Ellis Guilford School - 2023

It was heart touching

Aleena - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

This book just wasn't my cup of tea! It was well written, but just not for me.

Lexi - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

I liked it, but it was a little bit confusing

Olivia - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

This book was definitely one of my favourites! It was definitely a fascinating read. The details were amazing and there were lots of facts from WW2. I also like how the book was split in two the diary and the present.

Poppy - Outwood Academy Kirkby - 2023

This book is a fantastic one. It shows the thoughts and feelings a refugee would feel or would experience! In this book I like the fact that she gets to make a bond with her grandmother. And it shows us what she finds important.

Lizzie - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

This book was a bit slow to get started but I really enjoyed the end.

Lucy - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

Firstly, I thought Nisha's War was beautifully written and I loved the characters and the contrast between some of them. I loved that Nisha had to overcome some hard challenges and how twig was really Elizabeth. It was a great plot and a great plot twist. I liked that you used the words which were engraved in Elizabeth's room. I also liked how you included diary entries and at the end a piece of paper with Nisha's dad's name on it. Overall I thought it was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it.

Nancy - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

I liked this book, I found it thrilling! Personally, I found it a bit confusing, but I liked the style!

Cody - Magnus Church of England Academy - 2023

I loved the book. As I enjoy reading about war, it was a great choice for me. It was amazing to meet Dan at the author talk to hear about his inspiration for the book.

Holly - Magnus Church of England Academy - 2023

This book is truly amazing! I love how Nisha's diary is hidden between the chapters to explain her story even further and help the reader understand her story more. My favourite part is when Nisha and her grandmother finally begin to become closer. I was confused at first about who Twig was but his true identity really shocked me and the story began to make sense. I loved how she never gave up to find out what the three lost treasures were.

Ayyan - Ellis Guilford School - 2023

The book was alright. I did enjoy the book a bit. It's about a girl who escaped the terror of Japanese invasion in Singapore. Great book if you like mystery books

Alexander - Rushcliffe Spencer Academy - 2023

It is slow at first but starts to progress more quickly as the book goes on. Her grandmother seems hard at first but we see changes throughout the book which creates an interesting read. I don’t usually read this genre and this book kept me wobbling on the edge, putting me in a peculiar position of whether to continue with it or stay put on the ground I know.

Ruquaiyah - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

Nisha’s War is a realistic story about how to cope when your world is falling apart. Initially, the story was a little difficult to get into, however when the plot picked up when she met Twig, the story became much more interesting and fast-paced. I quite liked reading this book and learning about World War 2 from a different perspective.

Ayomide - Outwood Academy Kirkby - 2023

The story connected beautifully with the author's past and had thrilling suspense. The author himself is a really relatable person from the talk.

Eva - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

This book had a lovely theme of the fact that you can’t judge a book by its cover - this shows when Nisha's grandmother keeps her distance as Nisha is only half English. It was such a beautiful book and I loved the fact that Twig turned out to be ‘Elizabeth Barrow’. It has a subtle LGBTQ+ theme in the fact that ‘Elizabeth’ wanted to be a boy for all their life, giving the impression that they are trans. This book was very heartwarming and I loved it very much. My only complaint is that it took me a while to read it but at the end it was worth all of the time it took! Loved this book, Eva

Qudsiah - Nottingham Girls High School - 2023

It’s a well written book, with great detail that draws an amazing picture in the readers' heads, but the book was a little bit slow and focused more on the imagery and the feelings of the characters. It is an interesting story but not exactly my cup of tea.