It was an attitude that was increasingly gaining traction amongst educators and other decision-makers, in line with a growing awareness of the need to provide appropriate material to help young people bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood.

However, one has to remember the complications of finances, naturalisation, foreign travel, the general destruction wrought upon the European infrastructure etc. To avoid sending the children back, Kurt helped them escape in two canoes via the local river, a tributary of the River Danube. The fact that, for example, A Pair of Jesus Boots was so successful at the time of its publication but is now out of print does not undermine its significance but rather speaks to the way in which many of these titles tapped into the contemporary concerns and interests of readers within a specific period. The Silver Sword' is the serialisation of a powerful story which, quite rightly, has been adopted and exploited by the teaching profession as a tool for exploring man's inhumanity to man.He explains to them that he’s “here to fire folks with the spirit of occupation, to tell them they’ve all grown up the wrong way. There will probably be an elderly edition of Robinson Crusoe, flanked perhaps by several dog-eared collections of fables and folklore. He was determined that New Windmill, an offshoot of Heinemann Educational Books, would provide an altogether more fresh and engaging list of hardback fiction and non-fiction for secondary school libraries and classrooms, produced to a higher quality.

In some cases, correspondence with authors was required, as well as negotiations over royalties, illustrations and cover design. This more thoughtful style is revealed particularly clearly in an episode of The Silver Sword which describes the children’s conversations with the Wolffs, a German farmer and his wife who temporarily provide shelter. Despite being aware of the need to reassure teachers whilst engaging teenage readers, sometimes they had to defend their choices. Jan's record was sent to the authorities, but his parents were never traced and the Balickis granted his request to adopt him. The boy is carrying many loaves of bread, and he gives a lot of them to Joseph, telling him he took them from the Nazi barracks.As such, the work of the Serrailliers can be viewed as a fascinating example of publishing for young adults situated at the crossroads of two eras: the earlier, more protectionist view of children’s literature as sharply delineated from adult output, and the beginnings of a new understanding of the opportunities and demands proposed by what Serraillier refers to as “new adult” readers. Tell them to follow as soon as they can Having lost their parents in the chaos of war, Ruth, Edek and Bronia are left alone to fend for themselves and hide from the Nazis amid the rubble and ruins of their city. A few men tried to escape, but “those that were not caught and sent back died of exposure in the mountains” (15).