Tuesday 15 October 2013

Private Peaceful - Summary of Chapters 6 & 7

This is the last blog post I am going to do on the book 'Private Peaceful'. I hope you will enjoy!

Chapter 6:
Tommo remembers again when they - Molly, his mother, Charlie and Big Joe - buried Bertha. They didn't do anything special; they didn't sing or put flowers on the grave. They were all to angry and sad about the Colonel shouting Bertha. Then one day Big Joe disappears. At the beginning no one minds, because he usually went out every day without saying anything. When it started to get dark and evening came, there was no sign of Big Joe. Everybody started to get worried, because they all knew that Big Joe was scared in the dark. They split into groups, Charlie went one way, Tommo the other. Charlie's and Tommo's mother and Molly stayed at home, to be there if Big Joe finds his way home alone. Charlie and Tommo wne tto the Big House to raise alarm and ask for help. The Colonel helps them and the whole village too. Every person looked for Big Joe, but nobody found them. If any one had found them everbody would have known, because the church bells would have rang. At some point, Molly remembers, Big Joe wanted to be in Heaven with his dad and Bertha. Big Joe's Heaven wasn't the Heaven that we would think of; for Big Joe, Heaven was the church tower. Charlie and Tommo, run there. On the way Charlie twists his ankle and Tommo keeps on running. He runs to the the top of the church tower, and finds Big Joe there. He tries to wake Big Joe up, but Big Joe doesn't move and he is also very pail and cold. Tommo thinks Big Joe is dead, but Big Joe wakes up and is happy to see Tommo. They both start crying because of joy.  Tommo starts ringing the church bells and the whole village comes to the church and celebrates the finding of Big Joe. Even the Colonel and the Wolfwoman come and celebrate.

Chapter 7:
One day Tommo and Charlie come home, and find Molly crying at their mother's lap. Their mother informed them that Molly was pregnant with Charlie's baby and was thrown out of home. Which meant she is going to live with all of them from now on. Soon Molly and Charlie get married; but the whole village calls it a marriage of shame. Everybody knew that Molly was pregnant with Charlie's baby. The family didn't have enough rooms for every one, so  Tommo moved into Big Joe's room, so that Charlie and Molly could sleep together. One day when Tommo was doing some work at the market for Farmer Cox. A group of the army came through the market and everybody that worked around Tommo, followed them until they stopped in the center of the town. The Captain of the group gave a speech about the army, the war and that they need every man available to join the army. He asks people who want to come and the first who goes is, Tommo's old school bully. Some others get chosen; but then the Captain picks Tommo. An old lady behind him and says that he should join and everybody tells him to join. Then he runs away as fast as he can, until he is back in his village. After that, one day, the Colonel comes and informs them that Charlie had to go to war. At this point, Tommo starts to think about what had happened in the center of the village. He chose to join the army with Charlie. Charlie had go to the army, but Tommo chose to come with him. If Charlie wouldn't have gone, then Molly and his mother wouldn't be able to live in the house anymore. Soon the two boys are leaving the train to their new army campus.

Chapter 8:
Charlie and Tommo are at army camp with Sergeant Horrible Hanley. Tommo remembers    

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Private Peaceful - Summary of chapters 4+5

Hello! Here I am again! I hope you enjoyed reading the first part of this blog. This is now the second post that I am going to post, and I hope you enjoy it.

In the moment the story is getting far more interesting. Charlie Peaceful steals the foxhound, Bertha from the Colonel, and then the whole village doesn't want to communicate and 'don't want to know them'. There are a lot of different changes which are good but also sad and bad! The story is still very exciting and catches the readers attention!

In chapter 4, quite a few changes already start to develop. Starting at the beginning of the story. Tommo remembers that when they were with Molly the luck was on their side; but the luck had left them since Molly got sick with the scarlet fever. The first time Charlie and Tommo went poaching from the colonel's field - without Molly - Tommo accidentally fell asleep on his lookout duty. This meant there was a greater chance of getting caught by the Colonel's lookout Lambert. This was the first time their luck had left them, because Charlie and Tommo got caught by Lambert - with his two dogs - that wasn't all. The colonel's lookout escorted both of them to the house of the colonel. Both Charlie and Tommo had to apologize for trespassing. Their punishment was to clean the kennels every single Saturday until Christmas.

Nearly at the end of the chapter the luck comes back to Charlie and Tommo, because Molly gets better again and they can see each other again. Molly also comes to school again. After Tommo's 12th birthday, Molly and Charlie find work at the Big House - House of the colonel - and leave school. Tommo doesn't see Charlie and Molly that much anymore, he can only see them at night. He starts feeling left out because, the stories he tells about school don't really seem to interest Molly and Charlie anymore. They tell him stories about the Big House, but Tommo doesn't seem to understand them; which is another reason why he feels left out. Every time Tommo goes to see Charlie and Molly they always hold hands; which makes him jealous. At the end of chapter 4, Charlie comes home and tells everyone that he had stolen Bertha, because the colonel wanted to shout her.

After chapter 4 everything gets quite complicated and also exciting!

In chapter 5, Charlie has already stolen Bertha and hidden her in the forest where the colonel can't find her; but the colonel is not dumb and had noticed that Bertha was missing. He knew - right away - where to look for her, which was at the house of the Peaceful's. He knew that Charlie had her. Charlie wants to protect Bertha and doesn't tell the colonel where the dog is. Charlie's mother persuades the colonel, to sell Bertha to them; or rather just buys Bertha off from the colonel. After the colonel left the house, they all go to the forest to get Bertha and bring her home. From that moment on, Bertha and Big Joe did everything together; Bertha was even allowed to sleep in Big Joe's bed.

Something else happens in the chapter, Molly stops visiting Charlie and Tommo; and they don't know why. They both have an idea what happened. They knew it had to do something to do with the colonel and Molly's parents. And this was the case. It wasn't only the colonel but the wolfwoman as well. They had both told the parents of Molly, that the family Peaceful where thieves and are no longer people to communicate and to talk to. Charlie didn't care what the colonel said, and would always go and visit Molly; but nobody would ever open the door when he rang the bell or knocked. Charlie decided that Tommo might have a better chance to see Molly, and help Charlie and Molly to communicate with one another. This worked out quite well, Tommo and Molly would meet nearly every day, they always had a place in the forest where nobody could see them. They would always talk about the colonel and the wolfwoman, and how much they both hated them. They also started exchanging letters, which was a huge mistake, because Molly's mother ends up finding the letters. This wasn't everything, she started a rumor that the letter were love letters. Charlie feels betrayed and sad, because Tommo wasn't the only boy who liked Molly; it was Charlie who loved her as well. This made him sad, because he finds out that they meet behind his back. Charlie only wanted that Tommo is the messenger of him and Molly; and he never wanted Tommo to do something else. At the end of the chapter something more horrible and sad happened, one day Charlie and Molly find Bertha; dead, shot by the colonel. Molly brakes down and sits next to Bertha with tears in her eyes, asking the colonel for the reason. The reason why Bertha had to be killed!

I hope this post caught your attention again, and I hope you enjoyed it! There is going to be more of summary of the chapters coming in the next few days. See until next time.

Marie-Louise

Thursday 26 September 2013

Private Peaceful - Chapter summary of 1 - 3

Hello! In the moment I am reading the book, Private Peaceful. Until now the book has been quite interesting, because there are a few events already happening in the book.

Here is a summary of chapter 1, 2 and 3. Hope you will enjoy reading it.

Chapter 1:
In this chapter, an 18-year-old soldier at war; - his name Tommo Peaceful - tries to remember all of his childhood memories in one night. He remembers the first day of school and that he was scared of Mr. Munnings. He also remembers one of the worst events in his childhood. The day when he almost got killed by a falling tree; and how his dad saved him. He remembers the funeral of his father, he thinks that he was the reason why his father had to die. If he would have run away from the falling tree, his dad wouldn't have had to save him; and still would be alive. Tommo also has a three year older brother, named Charlie Peaceful. His character is described/shown as honest and tough. He stands up and is there for Tommo; he gets into fights with people that would mess with Tommo. Other characters that are introduced at this point are; Big Joe, Mr. Munnings, Miss McAllister, Molly and the mother of Tommo, Charlie and Big Joe Peaceful.

Chapter 2:
In this chapter, Tommo remembers when Charlie and him would give their - disabled - big brother - called Big Joe - all their food they didn;t want. Big Joe would eat anything and everything they gave him. One day, Charlie and Tommo gave him a bag of rabbit poop/droppings and told him that they were sweets. He ate all of them, but their mother found out somehow and then made Charlie and Tommo - for punishment - had to each eat one dropping. Then they learned, that, it wasn't funny. A few days later, a bully was really mean to Tommo about Big Joe, so Tommo and the bully got into a fight. The winner was already predicted, because the bully was a lot taller, bigger and stronger. This meant that Tommo lost and got beaten up. Then Charlie showed up and he stands up for his brother. In the end, Charlie gets into trouble and gets punished for helping and standing up for Tommo.He got punished by Mr. Munnings. Charlie got five strokes of the cane - a kind/sort of stick that farmers use to get their sheep together - on his bare bum. He was very brave and didn't cry out. Fro  that moment on, Molly became their best friend. One day the mayor of the village - also called the Colonel - comes to the house where Tommo, Charlie, Big Joe and their mother live together in. He delivered them a heart braking message, they had to move out of the house, because nobody was working. The could only stay in the house if their mother would start working as a maid for the Colonel's wife. Their mother agrees, this means that she can't take care of and look after the children any more. The great aunt must look after the children. The problem is the children hate her and always call her Grandma Wolf behind her back. This is the end of chapter 2. There are some new people introduced at this stage, the Colonel, Molly (but we don't really know anything about her yet) and Grandma Wolf.

Chapter 3:
In this chapter, Tommo remembers that Big Joe loved all animals, he feed the mice in the cupboard, but Grandma Wolf always got angry at him for doing it. She tried to kill the mice, only managed to kill one. The mouse that had been caught by Grandma Wolf had a funeral a very big funeral. Then on the day of Big Joe's birthday, Molly finds a big and lovely field mouse. Charlie, Molly and Tommo made a promise not to tell Grandma Wolf abouthis new pet. One day, Grandma Wolf fins out about the pet and kills it and all Big Joe's beloved other animals. After a while Charlie, Molly and Tommo began to illegally poach on the ground/land of the Colonel. They always went skinny dipping in his lake as well. At the beginning, Tommo didn't want to go skinny dipping into the lake. After the second or third time he did it, enjoyed it a lot. At the end of the chapter Charlie and Tommo aren't allowed to see Molly anymore, because she is sick with the scarlet fever.

This is the first part of what I am going to write until the book is finished. I hope you enjoyed reading this. See you until next time!