The Machine Gunners

　　Robert Westall's gripping Carnegie Medal-winning novel celebrates its 40th anniversary  ""Some bright kid's got a gun and 2000 rounds of live ammo. And that gun's no pea-shooter. It'll go through a brick wall at a quarter of a mile." " 

　　Chas McGill has the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth, and he desperately wants it to be the best. When he stumbles across the remains of a German bomber crashed in the woods its shiny, black machine-gun still intact he grabs his chance. Soon he's masterminding his own war effort with dangerous and unexpected results. Robert Westall's first novel for children is presented here with a bonus short story, "The Haunting of Chas McGill," and an extended biography of the author."

　　Robert Westall wrote 18 books for children, including The Machine Gunners and The Scrarecrows, both of which won the Carnegie Medal and the Horn Book awards.