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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.


 

Guardian Review – The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett, reviewed by Mal Peet

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The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett, reviewed by Mal Peet

Like her marvellous fellow Australian Margo Lanagan, Hartnett is unconcerned with the age of her readership or its presumed level of literacy or understanding. She takes her readers into the lush jungle of language and leaves them there, entranced by its sounds.

via The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett review – an entrancing exploration of powerlessness | Books | The Guardian.