Grandfather's Medal
The idea: every source was made by someone for something, and memory changes in the retelling.
Read it
Who is in this book
- Cosimo One source is a clue; where several independent sources agree, you are on firmer ground from ArchiveQuest
- Bartholomew Before you trust a source, ask who made it, when, and why from ArchiveQuest
- Danya a child of the Green Asks "how do we know?"
- Isabeau Every account is told from somewhere; ask what the teller could see and what they wanted from ArchiveQuest
- Tara a child of the Green Listens longest, speaks last
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?
True
- Walter, born in 1936, was 17 in the 1953 flood; the newspaper's two women and the diary's two children make four people rescued.
- The North Sea flood of 31 January to 1 February 1953 struck the coasts of the Netherlands, England, Belgium and Scotland, and was one of the worst natural disasters in their recent history. Source
- In the 1930s the psychologist Frederic Bartlett showed that when people retell a story from memory, it changes: details drop out, others are added, and it drifts toward what makes sense to the teller. Source
- Historians compare sources by asking who made each one, when, why, and what the maker could have known; where independent sources agree, a claim is better supported. Source
Stretched
- The case says the family story grew 'without anyone lying'. What we simplified: Memory research shows stories really do change in honest retelling, but nobody can know exactly how a particular family story changed. The case shows one likely way.
Made up
- The town, Walter Fenn, Arthur Bell, the newspaper, the plaque, the diary, Jonah and his family are made up. The 1953 flood is real.
Corrections
When a book gets something wrong, we fix it and say so here.
-
2026-10-07
Was:
Danya, who was nineNow: Danya, who was twelve
Danya is twelve on the Green; the casebook says so in case 2.
Found by the hub (P#223 S4) · now guarded by a read-through.
Tara’s sentence
The case stops where Tara speaks. Write the sentence you would have said. It stays on this device.
Kept.
Your sentence lives on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ring the hammer for someone
Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.