Book Description
for The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick
From The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY)
The Foxes are a well-to-do British family: respected medical doctor, sub servient mother, two sons at university, and seventeen-year old Alexandra. Tragically, Alexandra can envision the future—but only the imminent deaths of people she encounters. This becomes especially relevant when her brothers enlist in the British army at the outbreak of World War I. She foresees first her elder’s, then younger brother’s, deaths. Alexandra secretly departs for France in the guise of a volunteer nurse—hoping to safeguard her younger brother. The Foreshadowing can be paired with Iain Lawrence’s Lord of the Nutcracker Men (2001) for a look at the sordid—and more primitive— aspects of war. 2007 USBBY Outstanding International Books List. lmp
Originally published by Orion Children’s Books Great Britain, in 2005.