It is strange that primary schools rarely cover the First World War. But this year is surely an exception. What Price Peace? A teaching resource for primary schools exploring issues of war and peace, by Chris Hudson (BRF, GBP8.99) is, therefore, a welcome arrival on the bookshelves. The volume is suitable for a cross-curricular approach, using the war as a focus for RE, history, PSHE, and particularly literacy. Parents and grandparents will be grateful that the school is undertaking this on their behalf. The unimaginable slaughter involved is probably why schools have shied away from even mentioning it. And yet the Christmas truce, Woodbine Willie, The Wipers Times, the Angel of Mons, and Toc H, among many more, open the door to imaginative, but also factual consideration of the war years. Michael Morpugo's brilliant stories for children, Warhorse and Private Peaceful, provide the ideal background for two of the author's chosen themes: the white feather, and the widespread affection for animals felt by soldiers on the Western Front. As Britain struggles again, in 2014, to come to terms with its position within Europe and the world, there is surely an ever-urgent responsibility on schools to explain to our children the events that have created and defined our island story. And this is a year like no other: the 70th anniversary of D-Day takes place on 6 June, and it is the centenary of the start of the First World War. The publishers have got it right. To tackle the First World War in primary schools is an idea whose time has come. Church Times Education feature, June 2014