Hangman

A powerful school novel chronicling the rise and fall of a bully , culminating in a dramatic search for a pupil on one of the WW2 Normandy landing beaches , in Northern France. Danny is different from the other children at school. He's a bit of a swot, old-fashioned, and gets bullied by the other boys -- particularly the class 'star'.. Danny befriends the girls, which makes the boys who bully him even worse. On a school trip to Northern France to visit the WW2 landing beaches, the bullies play more and more tricks on Danny culminating in making him miss the coach back from a day trip. Lost in France, with limited French, Danny is kidnapped by an old man. The police are called in, a search gets under way and the finger is pointed at the bullies. Danny is meanwhile kept prisoner -- terrified and dermoralised, he contemplates suicide. But his kidnapper turns out to be an old WW2 resistance fighter who is reliving his past and thinks he his helping to hide Danny from the Germans. Danny is found, safe but unconscious from a mystery illness. Neither he, nor the ringleader of the bullies will ever be the same again. A moving, powerful and compulsive read with plenty of historical detail [WW2] and social issues.