Children of the Dust: Part 1

By LOUISE LAWRENCE

It was such a perfect day, a promise of summer with cloudless blue skies. Swallows were nesting below the eaves of the caretaker's cottage and out on the sports field Year Nine were playing cricket and tennis. Everyone thought, when the alarm bell rang, that it was just another fire practice. But the first bombs had fallen on Hamburg and Leningrad, the headmaster said, and a full-scale nuclear attack was imminent. Those within walking distance of the school must go home immediately. The rest should return to the main assembly hall and stay there.

Sarah ran through a town gone mad with panic. The traffic had stopped... cars and lorries parked all along the narrow high street. Men and women, crazy with fear, looted the shops for supplies. Police sirens sounded and on the housing estate they were tearing doors from their hinges to board up the windows.

Publisher: Random House

Price: $16.95

Age group: 12 plus years


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