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Nisha’s War by Dan Smith

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 3 Feb 2022

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“This is Dan’s greatest novel. There, I’ve said it. I’ve been thrilled and excited by his stories before – but never this moved by mystery and family feeling. This is a story about coming home to a strange land with an even stranger inheritance – to forge a bond where you appear to be unwanted and to reach beyond the grave to find love and belonging. It’s thrilling and dangerous and unexpected too!” Barry Cunningham, Publisher

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that causes the rest of the world to melt away leaving only the story. The characters become real people and the events of their lives take your breath away. Nisha’s War by Dan Smith is one of those books.” Scope for Imagination

Follow Dan Smith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dansmithauthor/

Malaya, 1942. Nisha’s home is destroyed by war and she and her mother, Amma, flee to her father’s ancestral house in England, perched on a cliff top on the cold Northern coast. When Amma falls gravely ill, Nisha is left to face her formidable grandmother alone. Grandmother’s rules are countless, and her Anglo-Indian granddaughter is even forbidden from climbing the old weeping tree. But when a ghost child beckons Nisha to sit under its boughs, and promises her Amma’s life in return for three truths, its pull proves irresistible…

A thrilling historical ghost story; full of adventure, grief, guilt, forgiveness and belonging A fresh angle on a wartime story: the prejudice Nisha faces as a refugee feels particularly relevant today.

The splendid cover illustration is by Matthew Land. Follow him on Instagram:

 

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The Secrets Act by Alison Weatherby

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 7 Jan 2022

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A thrilling, nail-biting YA mystery with themes of friendship, loyalty, secrets, and a dash of romance, which follows two young women, Pearl and Ellen, who are recruited to work at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.

Pearl and Ellen work at top-secret codebreaking HQ, Bletchley Park. Pearl is the youngest. A messenger at sixteen, she’s untidy, lively, bright, and half in love with the wrong boy, Richard. Her circle of friends overlaps with his – the dashing young men on their motorcycles who courier the secrets that Bletchley deciphers. Ellen is a codebreaker. Reserved, analytical and beautiful. She never expected to get close to a girl like Pearl – or fall for a chap like Dennis. But when tragedy strikes, their logical world is upended, with both friends caught in a spy plot that rocks the very heart of the war effort. Who can they turn to now? Who can they trust? And above all, can they unmask the traitor in their midst before it’s too late?

Follow the author on Instagram:

When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

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Elsa, Leo and Max have always been best friends, a special team of three. Then the Nazis come.

As a growing darkness descends around them, Leo and Elsa run for their lives, taking two very different paths across Europe. And Max, once their closest friend, now becomes the enemy as he is drawn into the Hitler Youth. Will the friends ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?

Inspired by a true story, and as powerful as it is heartbreaking, this novel shows how the bonds of love, family and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.

I Saw a Beautiful Woodpecker by Michal Skibinski ill. Ala Bankroft tr. Eliza Marciniak

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 28 Oct 2021
Recognised in the OPERA PRIMA category in the BolognaRagazzi Award 2020

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“Beautifully illustrated.” KIRKUS
“The simplicity of Michal’s text will strike a chord with readers everywhere, and Stiasny’s stunning illustrations add depth and impact.” BfK 5 Star review

It is the summer of 1939 in Warsaw, Poland and Michal is an eight-year-old boy just finishing his school year. In order to improve his handwriting, Michal’s teacher gives him a simple assignment: keep a journal, writing one sentence a day.

Eighty years later, Michal’s diary has been gorgeously illustrated with beautifully atmospheric paintings. Eloquent in its simplicity, the journal is a remarkable artefact that captures the innocence of childhood and the trauma of war. The journal starts out with a typical boy’s observations:
“July 15: I went to a stream with my brother and teacher.”
“July 23: I found a caterpillar.”
However over the course of weeks, menacing details emerge.
“July 27: A plane was circling over Anin.”
“September 1: The war has begun.”
“September 3: I hid from planes.”
“September 14: Warsaw is bravely defending itself.”
These haunting entries are interspersed with visits from relatives, a soccer game, a trip to a park, an ice cream cone.

Photographs of pages from Michal’s diary enhance the poignancy of this simple record of an ordinary holiday interrupted by war—a life changed forever by an extraordinary moment in history.

Follow the illustrator, AKA as Helena Stiasny (painter and photographer), on Instagram:

 

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Hide and Seek by Robin Scott-Elliot

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Spectator Best Children’s Books of 2021

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“Powerful historical fiction inspired by reality, by the lives of those whose bravery we cannot begin to imagine and whose dedication we should never forget. This is a World War 2 story told with respect and skill prompting emotions from sorrow to admiration as the reader become engrossed in this tense and enthralling adventure.” Library Lady
“A story about the true meaning of courage against impossible odds…” Chris Soul

A thrilling new page turner by Robin Scott-Elliot, author of The Tzar’s Curious Runaways and The Acrobats of Agra.

Paris, 1942. When Amelie Dreyfus hides in her mother’s wardrobe it’s a game; when she comes out it’s a matter of life or death. With her family taken, Amelie has to fend for herself in Nazi-occupied France – she’s no choice but to resist.In the Resistance life hangs by a thread. Betrayed, Amelie’s forced to flee to Britain. But Paris is home and she returns to face one final, desperate mission.

Adventures in Time: The Second World War by Dominic Sandbrook ill. Edward Bettison

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 26 Jul 2021

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“At a time when history is under unrelenting attack, this is my personal crusade to convert Britain’s young readers to the joys of the past, free from political dogma or ideological prejudice. From the start, I was determined to write with children in mind, not adults. There was no question of pandering to the weird obsessions of the present.” Dominic Sandbrook

Prepare to enter the most dramatic conflict the world has ever seen, as historian Dominic Sandbrook takes us on a spine-tingling, heart-stopping adventure. We witness the Second World War first-hand through the eyes of ordinary people living in extraordinary times, from the women who worked all night in factories to the chess players who cracked unbreakable codes. Because in total war, no life is left untouched…

The Adventures in Time series brings the past alive for twenty-first century children. These stories are every bit as exciting as those of Harry Potter or Matilda Wormwood. The only difference is they actually happened…

See also The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Follow the illustrator, Edward Bettison, on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edward_bettison/

Two more titles, Alexander the Great and The First World War, will be published in the autumn.

When The Sky Falls by Phil Earle

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 7 Jun 2021
Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month June 2021

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“An extraordinary story told with compassion and understanding. Dealing with the darkest of human emotions; anger, loss, grief, fear and humiliation it shows us that these can be overcome with love, understanding and forgiveness if we can only learn to allow it. A book with a powerful impact that will move readers and start discussions—it is a story I will not forget.” A Library Lady Blog
“An astounding work of fiction. The characters have the knotty awkwardness of real people, and the whole book has that unfakeable feeling of Truth. Earle takes us to some very dark places in this novel, but at the end he brings us back to the light. For years now Earle has been one of our finest writers for young people and here he is at the height of his considerable powers.” Anthony McGowan
“An exceptional novel.” BfK 5 Star Review
“Love, loss, trust and friendship during the horror of 1941; 304 pages of brilliance.” ReadingZone 5-Stars

It’s 1940, and Joseph has been packed off to stay with Mrs F, a gruff woman with no great fondness for children. To Joseph’s amazement, she owns the rundown city zoo where Joseph meets Adonis, a huge silverback gorilla. Adonis is ferociously strong and dangerous, but Joseph finds he has an affinity with the lonely beast. But when the bombs begin to fall, it is up to Joseph to guard Adonis’s cage should it be damaged by a blast. Will Joseph be ready to pull the trigger if it comes to it?

Follow the author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philearle/

 

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The Swallows’ Flight by Hilary McKay

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 May 2021
Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week 23 May 2021
Times Children’s Book of the Week 22 May 2021

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“A beautiful story, touchingly told and utterly without sentimentality. Hilary McKay has a keen ear for sparing dialogue, the banter of families, the awkwardness of saying what needs to be said. You believe completely in these children, their relationship with each other, their role in the family, simply by the way they communicate. What’s more, you care about them. This is a book for all the family to love.” Berlie Doherty
“I never intended to write a sequel. If I had, I wouldn’t have given the characters so many children. I ended up with 26 main characters and a dog! My editor Venetia Gosling drew me a huge family tree, and she told me the story of her granny on a farm in Kent, during the Second World War, the Battle of Britain. She was a very young girl, alone on the farm, and a dogfight was happening, and an airman came out of his plane, and Venetia’s granny ran to rescue him, and he survived. I used that story as the basis of The Swallows’ Flight.” Hilary McKay, Books for Keeps
“McKay refuses to dumb down the history, writing with such clarity and understanding that you can’t fail to be caught up in the cares of her loveable cast.” Alex O’Connell, The Times
“Hilary McKay’s superlative The Skylarks’ War seemed to make the Great War new, winning many hearts and the Costa children’s novel award. This compassionate sequel does the same with the Second World War as it continues the stories of kind-hearted Clarry and those she cares about.” Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times
“Revisit familiar characters from The Skylarks’ War and see how they have grown into themselves, having families and careers of their own in the new Britain after the First World War and before the second commences.” Just Imagine

Four ordinary lives connected by extraordinary circumstances, Hilary McKay’s stunning companion novel to the Costa Award-winning The Skylarks’ War features the next generation of characters as they move from childhood to the threshold of adulthood amid the chaos and conflict of the Second World War.

Erik and Hans admire swallows over the rooftops of Berlin, little thinking that one day they will be flying above England, risking their lives in a war they both detest.

Ruby and Kate, great friends despite their differences, find themselves racing towards a danger that neither of them could possibly have imagined.

Meanwhile Rupert and Clarry work secretly for peace – and a brighter future for them all …

 Read the Books for Keeps interview with the author.

Hilary McKay won the Costa Children’s Book Award for The Skylarks’ War:

 

Arctic Star by Tom Palmer

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 17 May 2021

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“Not a single word is wasted in this tense, compelling and moving story. The first chapter is both shocking and exciting and I defy any reader “giving this a try” not to turn on to chapter two. Tom Palmer ensures that you are instantly transported into the story itself without preamble or a slow build up and from the opening page on the reader is propelled into an absorbing and moving drama.” Library Lady

Tom Palmer returns with a thrilling naval adventure inspired by the incredible history of the Second World War Arctic convoys.

Winter 1943. Teenagers Frank, Joseph and Stephen are Royal Navy recruits on their first mission at sea during the Second World War. Their ship is part of an Arctic Convoy sailing to Russia to deliver supplies to the Soviets. The convoys have to navigate treacherous waters, sailing through a narrow channel between the Arctic ice pack and German bases on the Norwegian coast. Faced with terrifying enemy attacks from both air and sea, as well as life-threatening cold and storms, will all three boys make it home again?

 

When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

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‘Liz’s masterpiece . . . an instant classic’ Anthony McGowan, winner of the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal

‘A wonderful book, half tragedy, but told with such sheer, warm humanity that it leaves you with hope’ Hilary McKay, author of The Skylarks’ War

‘I haven’t read a Holocaust book for children that’s better’ Charlotte Eyre, The Bookseller

Three young friends – Leo, Elsa and Max – spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness, and that events soon mean that they will be cruelly ripped apart from each other. With their lives taking them across Europe – to Germany, England, Prague and Poland – will they ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?

Inspired by a true story, WHEN THE WORLD WAS OURS is an extraordinary novel that is as powerful as it is heartbreaking, and shows how the bonds of love, family and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.