Katrina Nannestad has won the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Society’s prize in the Children and Young Adult category for ‘Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief’

It’s spring, 1942. In an idyllic Russian village the sky is blue, the air is warm and sweet with the scent of flowers. But it’s the height of WWII and the German Army are advancing on the Eastern Front. Suddenly an entire Russian village is razed to the ground. Only six-year-old Sasha remains and he is alone in war-torn Russia. As a group of Red Army Soldiers drives back invading Nazis, he is found in the forest and ‘adopted’. Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief is a story of war and destruction. But also an enduring tale of love and friendship and of survival in the most difficult of times.

In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Katrina Nannestad about turning a true story into an award-winning novel for children and how she used stories of war that children can relate to. Katrina also talks about why historical fiction has an important role to play in discovering and explaining history to kids.