As with all her books, before starting to write she spoke to lots of children and adults and collected a great deal of 'real life' data. Her method works. Hangman is simply written and easy to read but its story is not an easy one. When Danny, the odd, detached, pedantic boy Toby knew at Primary school, turns up at his secondary school Toby is not pleased. He's worked hard to get in with the cool, laid back sporty set and he doesn't want to feel responsible for an odd ball. While Toby sits on the fence his other 'friends' take over. Danny is remorselessly bullied both in and out of school. Things come to a head on a school trip to Normandy, close to the D-day beaches where men fought against Fascism. A mean game goes dreadfully wrong and a simple children's story becomes a totally absorbing, frightening and sobering lesson in life. A truly powerful read. (Ages 8 to 12). --Tamsin Palmer

Julia Jarman captures vividly the partially innocent cunning and cruelty of children to someone they have singled out for, well, punishment (for want of a better word). She also captures the way some of the bullies don't understand why the victim does not have the nouse to play by the rules of the game, and also captures that it does not occur to the victim to do so because they do not think the same way. The part where I found it hard to suspend my disbelief was when the boy decides to walk (a very long way) from the town the school party visited, to a site they are actually due to visit the next day (but he has forgotten the timings). I suppose at this stage he is in a state of panic and mental and emotional retreat, so he is not thinking; he is reacting. It is also interesting to see that the behaviour of well-meaning, well-intentioned parents and teachers actually seem to worsen the whole problem; this in part reflects the skill of the children in hiding what is going on, and knowing how to behave when they are in the view of adults.

There is one very tiny glimmer of hope at the end of the book, which is the only part that shows changed behaviour; the reasons for this are interesting.