A Place To Hang The Moon by Kate Albus

Twelve-year-old William Pearce, his eleven-year-old brother Edmund, and nine-year-old sister Anna are struggling to navigate the guests at their grandmother's funeral. They didn't particularly like their grandmother which makes things more difficult. While William walks around talking to people, Edmond settles into a chair to eat the treats he's stuffed in his pockets while Anna hides behind the settee to finish her book, Mary Poppins.

It is June 1940 and England is at war with Germany so their guests must leave before it gets dark.Miss Collins, their elderly housekeeper reminds them that their grandmother's solicitor, Mr. Engersoll will be coming to discuss their futures in the morning. All three children are sad about this and want Miss Collins to stay but she's too elderly now to care for them. The children's parents had died when William was five, so they have few memories of their parents.

The next day Mr. Harold Engersoll indicates that although they have a sizable inheritance, they need a guardian. He suggests the best way for the three of them to stay together is to become part of the children's evacuation now taking place out of London. English children are being evacuated from London to the countryside to keep them safe should Germany begin bombing the cities. His suggestion is that the children not reveal their real circumstances in the hopes that the family who takes them in might considering keeping them.

Mr. Engersoll arranges for William, Edmund and Anna to join the St. Michael's evacuation. They work on packing their suitcases with the specific items listed. Miss Collins helps them finish up packing and then they are driven to the school where they are met by Miss Judith Carr. She attempts to split up the children, but Edmund refuses telling her they are staying together. Fortunately, Mr. Engersoll intervenes and Miss Carr agrees to allowing the children to travel together.

A group of almost eighty children, suitcases in hand, are led by their teachers to Kings Cross station where they board a train. William, Edmund and Anna are placed in their own compartment. The long train ride is mostly uneventful except for Edmund who becomes motion sick.

At their destination, the children walk to the village hall and after cookies and milk are lined up in front of the villagers. Mrs. Norton, president of the Women's Voluntary Service thanks the families for opening their homes to the evacuees. She explains that to lessen the "burden" of the children, they will have morning lessons at the village school as well as lunch. This attitude as it turns out, will set the tone of the children's experience as evacuees.

While Anna garners great interest by a number of families, most aren't eager to take in three children. Eventually, they are chosen by Nellie Forrester and her husband Peter, who is a butcher. But as William, Edmund and Anna soon discover, not everyone is happy to have "filthy vackies" in their homes or communities. Will they ever find their special family, their place to hang the moon?

Discussion

A Place To Hang The Moon is set in 1940-41 during the Blitz and the evacuation of over eight hundred thousand children urban areas being targeted by the German Luftwaffe. Parents were initially encouraged to send their children into the relative safety of the countryside to be billeted with families in villages and farms. While many of these children had very good experiences, others were poorly treated. 

Kate Albus was inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia series and the experiences of the Penvensie children, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter who, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are evacuated from London during the World War II. Her character, Edmund Pearce is based somewhat on Edmund Penvensie. Unless readers have read the C.S. Lewis books, they likely won't catch the similarities between the two characters.

The three Pearce children, William, Edmund, and Anna are orphans, after their last remaining relative, an elderly, uncaring grandmother has passed away. Although they have a sizable inheritance, they have no one to care for them. Their lawyer believes the best way for them to find a family is through the evacuation and so they are sent into the countryside with the hope that they can find "a place to hang the moon."  This places a heavy burden on the oldest, William, who isn't helped much by the frequent trouble Edmund seems to keep getting into. William is responsible for keeping the trio safe and their situation a secret. So the children travel to an unnamed village, some twenty-five miles from Coventry.

But things do not go well for the Pearce siblings. After suffering through two families where they are not well treated, they end up alone, cold and hungry on Christmas Eve. Understanding their predicament and having gotten to know them from their frequent visits to the library, the village librarian, Mrs. Muller kindly takes them in. Mrs. Muller  herself is somewhat of an outcast because she is married to a German man. He has returned to Germany and although her husband's whereabouts are not really known, she has determined that he is gone for good. Both the children and Mrs. Muller have experienced discrimination and exclusion and they are both feeling the effects of being judged. Mrs. Muller was considered "unsuitable" for a billet and the children are unwanted "vackies".

Despite the sad situations that the children have experienced, Albus  provides a heartwarming ending to what was a very difficult time for the children. They have found a forever home, and they have devised a plan to bring Mrs. Muller into the community by involving her in a wartime project of growing much needed vegetables.

A Place To Hang The Moon is a very engaging story, populated by believable characters, and a look at what life might have been like for both villages taking in evacuated children, and the children who were billeted with families. An Author's Note at the back providing more information to young readers about the evacuation of children during the Blitz would have been helpful to provide more information and context to the story.

You can learn more about the evacuation from History of Government. Child Evacuees in the Second World War: Operation Pied Piper at 80.

Book Details:

A Place To Hang The Moon by Kate Albus
New York: Margaret Ferguson Books       2021
309 pp.

Our Castle By The Sea by Lucy Strange

Our Castle By The Sea is a juvenile historical fiction novel set in southeastern England during the beginning of World War II.

Twelve-year-old Petra (Pet) Zimmermann Smith lives with her father Frederick, her mother  Angela Helene whom they call Mutti as she is from Germany and her fifteen-year-old sister Magda (Mags). Pet's father operates the lighthouse located near the village of Stonegate so their family lives in the adjacent cottage attached to the lighthouse.

Their lighthouse has always been known as the Castle because it is surrounded by four granite megaliths known as the Daughters of Stone which look like buttresses or guard towers. The megaliths are believed to have been used by the druids. Pet's father once told them the legend of the stones. A fishing vessel named the Aurora failed to return to the harbour one foggy night. The daughters of the four men on board went each night to the clifftop to light a signal fire to guide the Aurora home. People believed the ship was lost to the Wyrm, a sandbank just offshore known to shift and sink ships. The last night of their vigil, the daughters sang a song to the sea, offering up their souls in exchange for the return of the Aurora. They sang all night and at dawn a ghostly boat returned with the men. In return for bringing home the Aurora, the Wyrm and they misty tentacles of fog turned the four daughters to stone. This story both entrances and terrifies Pet.

In the Autumn of 1939 Mag's comes home one day with a swollen eye and cut fists. She has been in a fight at school because people have been taunting  her about Mutti. With the start of the war with Germany people in England are suspicious of anyone who is German.

Pet's father receives an order from the government to paint the lighthouse green, camouflaging it from the air. Not long after this, Pet and her family are frightened to see so many planes flying over the lighthouse. They seek shelter in the coal cellar of the lighthouse cottage and while there, Pet discovers a photograph of her parents wedding which she decides to keep. The picture interests Pet because no one looks happy and there are only two guests at the ceremony.

Gas masks arrive in the village and everyone is called to the village hall where Mrs. Baron the headmistress and magistrate at the court in Dover, demonstrates how to use them. Mrs. Baron announces that she will also be the Air Raid Precaution warden for the village.

Pet begins to notice that her sister Mags seems to be acting strangely. She also notices strange goings on in the village. Her father seems distracted when aiding a ship with the lighthouse foghorn and the optic light. Then Pet discovers Mutti leaving the cottage early one morning, and discovers she is following someone else.

In the Spring of 1940, Hitler invades France by way of the Netherlands and Belgium. The real war has now begun. One morning Pet and her family wake up to a fire in the village; someone has set fire to the village hall which was being used as a base for the Local Defense Volunteers and the Scout hut where equipment was being stored.

But then one day Mutti is summoned to a tribunal. Because she was born in Germany, Mutti was considered to be an "enemy alien". Every enemy alien had to be categorized according to the risk they were considered to pose; Category A aliens were a serious threat and locked up in internment camps, Category B were not locked up but were restricted on where they could live and work, Category C aliens were minimal risk and faced no sanctions.At the tribunal, Mutti is declared at Category A alien when a set of maps and charts are presented as being drawn by her.  Despite Mutti's denials and little proof they are actually hers, she is sentenced to an internment camp.

In shock, Pet and Mags decide they must prove Mutti's innocence. But their investigations lead no where and Pet finds herself doubting everyone around her. But a shocking confession from Mutti in a letter and a stunning revelation overheard by Pet throws her world into chaos. What is the truth and will Pet's family ever be the same?

Discussion

Our Castle By The Sea is the story of a young girl, afraid and struggling to understand the world around her who overcomes her own fears to try to save her family from events beyond her control. Strange's novel is unrelenting in the tragedies the Smith family experience making it unusual for juvenile fiction. There is no happy ending here, but there is hope.

The coming difficulties for Pet's family are foreshadowed by her discovery of her parent's wedding photograph, hidden in the Castle's coal cellar. The photograph reveals a wedding that was not filled with joy and attended by only two other people. It suggests a troubled past that Pet doesn't know about and an uncertain future.

Strange weaves many historical details into her story which spans the time period of a year from Autumn 1939 to Autumn 1940. The war in Europe is just beginning. It's been only twenty years since the last world war which was supposed to end all wars. The Germans are in France and the threat of invasion is very real. The coast of France is a mere twenty miles away. The people are afraid and suspicious of anyone German. With little due process, anyone of German ancestry deemed "dangerous" is incarcerated in a camp. Pet notes how the war begins to change people so they turn on neighbours and friends,  when her mother is one of those sent to an internment camp.
"...They were our friends. People from church, the village shopkeepers and fishermen, the parents of the children we had grown up with. But something had changed them. The war. The enemy plane. The things they had heard on the wireless and read in the newspapers. The rumors, the whispers. They were angry. And they were very, very frightened."

Another event mentioned is the evacuation of children from areas considered dangerous such as the coast to villages further inland. The evacuation of Dunkirk is also incorporated into the storyline. When Pet's family learns that boats of all kinds are needed to rescue the trapped troops on the coast of France, Mags is determined to go. But their father insists that she not, although in the end Mags disobeys him. Instead he goes and is lost in the evacuation. Strange touches on all of these real events in her Historical Note at the back of the novel.

Strange incorporates the the legend of the Daughters of the Stone and the Wyrm throughout her story. The legend is presented early in the story and we see that it has a profound effect on Pet. She often dreams the Wyrm is pursuing her right up to the lantern room but never quite makes it. This motif of a shifting sea monster that is after her and her family represents Pet's fears associated with the war. She equates the war with the sea monster that haunts her dreams. "This war is a sea monster, I thought. Sometimes it destroys things violently and openly, and sometimes its tentacles squeeze in through the cracks of normal life, and it strangles us silently."

When Pa and Mags leave to help in the evacuation of Dunkirk, Pet keeps watch on the clifftop. But when it seems like they are not going to return, Pet believes like the Daughters of Stone, she must sing to bring them home."This was the moment that I had always known about in my bones, ever since Pa first told me the legend of the stones. This was the moment in which I would finally become part of this ancient story. The sky wrapped around me, gray as fate, enveloping me together with the stones and the cold-smoking sea." As she sings, a boat arrives in the harbor but it is Kipper and Mags and not her Pa. Later on Pet thinks, "I thought about the lullaby that I had sung to the sea as I prayed for Mags and Pa. I had felt so sure that some kind of magic was working...Just enough to bring Mags safely home, I thought. But not enough for my Pa." Pet continues to wonder, "Was there a price to be paid or not? Would I end up being turned to stone?"

After her accident on the clifftop which leaves her paralyzed from the waist down, Pet considers herself to be a Daughter of Stone. Now she sits in her wheelchair in the lantern room. "I was a Daughter of Stone now -- so, from up in the lantern room, from first light to twilight, I did what the Daughters of Stone do: I kept watch over our sky and sea."  During her watch one night Pet someone enters the lighthouse, knocking out Mags and entering into the lantern room. At first Pet believes it is the Wyrm coming finally to  claim her. In reality it is Mrs. Baron who turns out to be a traitor and a Nazi. Drawing on the legend, Pet thinks, "In that moment, I was aware of the Daughters of Stone outside on the clifftop, sparkling darkly, calling to me as one of their own - warning me, giving me strength." Mrs. Baron reveals much to Pet, including that she is in the lantern room to aid in the beginning of the Nazi invasion. With all the strength, courage and self-sacrifice of the Daughters of Stone, Pet helps to thwart Mrs. Baron's plans. Pet has been transformed from a girl, "...small and unnoticeable and frightened. A girl whose mother was locked away and whose father was lost at sea, who battled with monsters braving the raging skies and the darkness of the night..." Pet is now "Defender of the White Cliffs, Dragon Slayer, Daughter of Stone"

Our Castle By the Sea a mixture of  historical fiction and adventure, a coming of age story with a thrilling climax. And despite Pet having suffered many losses, she demonstrates her resiliency, courage and maturity in her hope for the future, despite the ongoing war. She grows into a strong heroine through adversity.

This novel would definitely have benefited from lovely pencil illustrations. Sadly, illustration in juvenile fiction is mostly lacking today, but a good artist helps tell the story and fuel the imagination of the reader. Nevertheless, Our Castle By the Sea is a well-written novel that historical fiction fans will very much appreciate.

Book Details:

Our Castle By The Sea by Lucy Strange
New York: Chicken House      2019
319 pp.

DVD: Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour is an account of the first weeks of Winston Churchill's time as Prime Minister of England. The story begins on May 9, 1940. By this time Hitler has invaded Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark and Norway. Three million German troops are poised to invade Europe via Belgium. In Britain, it has become clear that the efforts by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to broker peace and rein in Hitler have failed. In these dangerous times, Britain is now seeking a new leader.  In Parliament, Clement Atlee believes Chamberlain has left Britain unprepared for war and calls for his resignation. Chamberlain decides to resign and Conservative MP Lord Halifax is offered the job. Halifax declines and so Churchill is offered and accepts.

May 10, 1940
Churchill receives a phone call from the French Embassy who inform him that Belgium and Holland have been invaded. His new secretary, Miss Elizabeth Layton, is warned about Churchill's gruff manner and true to the warning he scares her into leaving.  But Layton is told to stick it out and she agrees to deliver a telegram from the palace to Churchill. She returns to find Churchill listening to a BBC broadcast about the invasion of Holland and Belgium and an appeal to Allied countries to help them.

Meanwhile at the palace an angry King George VI believes that Churchill with his disastrous record at Gallipoli, his opposition to Indian independence, and his positions on the Russian Civil War and the Gold Standard demonstrate he lacks the judgement necessary to be Prime Minister. However, George does meet with Churchill and asks him formally to accept the position and form a government.

On May 13, 1940, the Nazis invade France. Churchill forms his war cabinet that consist of members from the opposition so as to represent the unity of the nation. He tells them "We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous time." His policy is to wage war and their aim is "Victory as all costs." However, Chamberlain is not happy as he believes negotiations with Hitler are paramount. He tells Halifax that Churchill must be removed from office.

Churchill receives the word that the French army has capitulated and that the collapse of western Europe is imminent. He travels to France where he meets with the French president and tries to encourage them to continue fighting. On May 19, Churchill gives a speech that is broadcast to the nation in which he reiterates his determination to wage war against Nazi Germany and win.

At this time the War Cabinent reveals that the entire British Army is trapped at Dunkirk, a small port in France. Churchill orders the garrison of four thousand men under Brigadier Nicholson to be sacrificed by drawing the Nazis away from Dunkirk so the soldiers can be evacuated.

Meanwhile Churchill must contend with the growing determination of Lord Halifax and Chamberlain to become involved in peace talks with Hitler through the mediatation of Italy. At first Churchill refuses but by May 27 when Belgium falls and as Britain begins to prepare for invasion, he reluctantly agrees to consider peace IF he knows the terms. King George supports Churchill in his desire to fight on, encouraging him and advises Churchill to go to the people, and let them instruct him. Churchill takes this advice to heart,impulsively decides to ride the London tube where the British people tell him they want to fight rather than sue for peace. This leads Churchill to address the Outer Cabinet as to whether they want to sue for peace and their answer is no. Churchill then informs the War Cabinet of his decision and addresses Parliament.

Discussion

Darkest Hour captures the essence of those dark critical months in 1940 when Europe finally comes to the realization of what Hitler is. The British government having lost confidence in Prime Minister Chamberlain forces him to resign and in his place king George VI requests Churchill to accept the position. As Hitler overruns Europe, the British government faces two choices, to capitulate to Hitler and negotiate peace or to resist and go to war. Darkest Hour portrays the conflict between Lord Halifax and Nevill Chamberlain who believe England should negotiate with Hitler through the Italians and Prime Minister Winston Churchill who believes in all out war. The film shows Halifax and Chamberlain "conspiring" to trap Churchill into stating he will not negotiate in the hopes that they can remove him.

Framed by two of Churchill's most famous speeches, Darkest Hour does capture the growing fear of the British government as they watch darkness descend over Europe. And for Britain it was most certainly the worst of times. Most of Britain's army was trapped at Dunkirk between the sea and the Nazis with the Navy unable to rescue them. This led Churchill to order the garrison at Calais to attack the Germans so as to delay their attack on Dunkirk a claim that has been disputed.

However Darkest Hour misses the mark in its portrayal of the person central to the British war effort - and the Allies' ultimate victory - Winston Churchill. Gary Oldman's portrayal is quite good, good enough to earn him many awards including a Golden Globe and an Oscar for best actor. Oldman manages to resemble Churchill  physically, capturing some of the elder statesman's mannerisms and his accent. However the movie portrays an uncertain and wavering Winston Churchill, about to agree to negotiate for peace and who seeks affirmation from the public in an impromtu train ride that definitely never happened nor would such an action ever have been considered by the aristocratic politican. Churchill was resolute in his belief that Hitler could not be reasoned with nor trusted. "You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth." was his famous response.

Overall Darkest Hour is an enjoyable movie for those not completely set on seeing a film based entirely on fact. There's some dramatic license taken to engage modern viewers which is a shame because Winston Churchill and the period covered in the film are fascinating enough.

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson

That Burning Summer covers a series of fictional events during the summer of 1940, just as World War II is ramping up. Set in the Romney coast area of England the story opens in July just after Peggy Fisher, her younger brother Ernest and her mother have been forced to leave their home in Lydd near the coast and move to the farmhouse by Snargate where her mother grew up. The army has requisitioned their house so they have moved in with Uncle Fred, Aunt Myra and Cousin June and her baby daughter Claudette. The story is told from three points of view, that of Peggy, Ernest and Henryk.

Eleven-year-old Ernest is obsessed with the Leaflet that has been circulated by the Ministry of Information and the War Office about what to do if the German's invade. But Peggy is sick of hearing him talk about it and reminds him that "It says 'If the invader comes." Not 'When the invader comes.'" However, Ernest believes it's best to be prepared and can't understand Peggy's lack of interest.

Ernest ignores his sister's instructions to return home and instead rides his bike to the shore where he stands looking towards France. The instructions in the leaflet weigh heavily on his mind as he worries what he would do if the Germans invaded. He sees the coils of barbed wire along the shoreline and the low concrete buildings called blockhouses. As he's riding back towards home, Ernest hears a plane falling from the sky, on fire, black smoke trailing behind. The sight and sound of the plane causes him to crash his bike and lose his glasses so he thinks it has crashed into Walland Marsh. What he doesn't see is the pilot parachuting to the ground. When Ernest returns home to tell his family what he saw he is sent to the Land Defense Volunteers to make a report. The volunteers set out to where Ernest believes the plane went down and find evidence of the crashed plane but by this time it has sunk into the marsh and as everyone believes, along with the pilot too.

However it turns out that the pilot did survive. Polish airman, Henryk had just survived an encounter with German enemy fighters and set off in pursuit of a single plane heading towards France. He never saw the plane that hit him. Henryk falls out of the plane and manages to engage his parachute, but he hits the ground hard causing him to sprain his ankle. Shaken and covered in fuel, he is able to pack up his parachute and hide it, and hobble towards a line of trees.

That night Peggy, unable to sleep, decides to check the hen house door. Drawn to the hen house by the chickens squawking, she discovers a dirty, frightened man with no boots, wearing a flight suit and goggles on his head. He tells Peggy he cannot go back and reveals that he is a Polish pilot with the RAF and introduces himself as Henryk. Torn between turning him in and helping him, Peggy decides to hide him for the night in the abandoned church. She fetches him a pair of boots and her father's old clothing and leads him to the church before heading home.

In the morning Peggy is preoccupied with what happened during the night. Is she a traitor? She's supposed to report him to the nearest authority. She decides she will feed the missing pilot and then send him on his way. But things are not so simple. When she offers Henryk a way they can come forward, his overwhelming fear is evident. Peggy decides she will wait. What she doesn't expect is that as the days pass they will become friends and that things will become more complicated than she ever anticipated.

Discussion

That Burning Summer is one of several recent young adult novels exploring life in England during World War II. In this novel, the setting is the very south of England, in the Kent and Romney Marsh area which is just across the English Channel from France. The English, particularly people living in this area were understandably nervous about the real possibility of a German invasion.

By July of 1940, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemborg, Norway and France had surrendered to Germany after being invaded. Finland was captured by the Soviet Union. In June, 1940, Germany invaded the Channel Islands and in July, 1940 what was to become known as the Battle of Britain, had begun. Hitler had already signed off on a planned invasion of Britain, known as Operation Sea Lion. If an invasion was to happen, the flat coast and accessible beaches of this area offered a prime location for the Germans to land. As Syson mentions in her novel, the beaches were covered with rolls of concertina wire which also identified areas that were mined. In addition concrete pillboxes or blockhouses were also constructed along the coast as another layer of defense. The LDV (Local Defense Volunteers) was set up and comprised of men who were ineligible for military service. Their purpose was to slow down the invading troops, providing regular military units a chance to reorganize.

Syson effectively captures the uncertainty and fear many English felt in the summer of 1940 with frequent mention of the booming sounds coming from France, "the thunder across the sea." However despite their fear, each of the characters in the book reaches deep inside to act courageously. This fear is especially evident in the character of Ernest who is eleven-years-old at the beginning of the novel. His fear is shown by his obsessive attention to a pamphlet detailing what to do should England be invaded. Ernest has memorized the pamphlet and reminds himself to follow the tips for spotting an invader. He worries about almost every aspect of the invasion, about recognizing the enemy, about whether the church bells will be able to be rung in time, about whether they will hear them.

Ernest is shown to be very much like his father who is an artist and someone who abhors killing anything. When Ernest comes across the dead moles he feels disgusted and doesn't want to be involved in checking the traps but doesn't know how to tell his Uncle Fred this. "Ernest couldn't possibly tell him the truth about how he felt, though Dad would understand, of course. He didn't think it was silly or squeamish. A dead animal, in your bare hands, that you've killed yourself...? Ernest shuddered, imagining the feel of a stiff, cold body, hard under velvet." The gun given to him by Uncle Fred on his twelfth birthday is not something he's happy to receive.

Ernest is convinced he has LMF - Lack of Moral Fiber a term coined to describe RAF flyers too afraid to fly anymore. "But it's just the same, isn't it? I haven't got the moral fiber to go trapping with Uncle Fred. Or rabbit-hunting. I'm too scared. I'm no good at that kind of thing. A coward. They used to shoot cowards, you know." When Ernest visits Henryk alone, he is trying to determine if Henryk is who he claims to be. Instead, he learns about courage and why some people can no longer be brave. Henryk suggests that courage is like a bank and that it can be used up and that it cannot be made on its own. "Can you make it from nothing? I don't think so. I think perhaps...I think you get courage from other people. But when they go, it gets harder and harder. And when you know you have just a little left, and just a few people, it seems to go faster and faster. Until you are like me. Ernest, I have to tell you...I have none left. Not even the courage to die when I wished it..."

When Ernest learns the truth about his father, that he is a pacifist who took the peace pledge, he's devastated. Ernest believed is father was overseas fighting in the war.  Instead, he went away to Eastbourne where he helped conscientious objectors prepare for their hearings. Eventually he was arrested, convicted and sent to prison for handing out leaflets and newsletters outside the conscription office. Peggy reveals that their mom never told anyone in their village because she felt ashamed.  Ernest feels ashamed of his father and is determined to be different. "Ernest set the gun on his shoulder. Be like Dad, the posters said. But he would be better than his dad." He would reveal Henryk. However, Ernest ends up not facing Henryk, but a real spy, determined to silence Peggy, Ernest and Victor. When Peggy tells Ernest to run and get help, he refuses to leave her and tries to help.

Through the character of Henryk, the devastating reality of the war in Europe is shown. When Henryk's homeland of Poland was invaded, he fought the Nazis, as part of the Polish air force. Unsuccessful, he was forced to flee, enduring the pain of leaving his beloved country, travelling through Romania, Bulgaria, the Black Sea to Constantinople and then to Beirut. At a camp in Beirut, Henryk learned from his sister Gizela's letter that their parents have been murdered by the Nazis and later that his three sisters have also been murdered. Eventually he made his way to Britain, where he became part of the RAF. However, when he is shot down over Romney Marsh, Henryk is unable to turn himself in to authorities. He can no longer fly and fight. His courage is gone. Peggy recognizes that Henryk is not well. She explains to Ernest, "He twisted his ankle. But that's better now really. He's hurt in another way though. Not the kind of hurt they can do anything about in hospital, I don't think. It means he can't fly." Although Henryk believes he has no courage left, he decides to leave to protect Peggy, and on his way encounters Peggy and Ernest being attacked. Risking everything, Henryk comes to their aid, firing his revolver, something Peggy would not have believed him capable of doing just a day earlier.

Peggy must deal with her growing conflict over hiding Henryk who would be considered a deserter and the fact that she is falling in love with him. At first hiding Henryk "was like carrying around a boulder, this mistake she had made: huge and indigestible, it weighed her down." "For the first time she began to fear for herself. Maybe she was a traitor already. After all, she'd encouraged someone not to do his duty. That was a kind of treachery." Peggy remembers that they hang traitors, so she decides she will feed the missing pilot and then send him on his way. But seeing Henryk's fear she understands that he is unable to fly. With compassion she continues to hide and feed Henryk, not knowing what the future holds. Peggy too shows courage when she comes to the aid of Victor, whom she despises, but who is being drowned by the spy. "She had no hope of rescuing Victor...She was sinking. It felt hopeless. Yet Peggy refused to give up. Mrs. Velvick could not lose another son." 

The strength in That Burning Summer is its wonderful portrayal of the uncertainty and fear of the English as well as their stout determination to defend their country as the Battle of Britain begins. Syson brings the novel to an exciting conclusion and ties up all the loose ends by jumping ahead to the end of the war in 1946 in an Epilogue. The novel is rounded out with a Historical Afterword that explains about the LMF designation, peace protests, missing pilots, spies and Polish pilots in Britain. This novel would have done nicely with a map of the Romney Marsh area, and perhaps a more mysterious cover suited to the story. In her Acknowledgements, it is evident Syson did considerable historical research for That Burning Summer.

For information on the Romney Coast area during World War II, readers are directed to Romney Marsh The Fifth Continent .

Picture credits:
Romney Marsh Map: https://www.theromneymarsh.net/#marsh

Book Details:

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson
New York: Sky Pony Press          2013
298 pp.

An Eagle In The Snow by Michael Morpurgo

Michael Morpurgo has crafted a beautiful story within a story. Set in 1940 England during the bombing of Britain, a stranger tells a young boy and his mother how a chance encounter and the decision to do the right thing appears to have been the wrong thing done.

The novel opens with a young boy, Barney travelling with his mother on the 11:50 train to London, on their way to the safety of Cornwall by the sea. 

Barney is ten years old and he lived on Mulberry Street in Coventry with his mother and father.  His father is now off to war, with the Royal Engineers in Africa. He and his mother have just endured weeks of bombing attacks by Germany in what will one day be known as the Blitz. 

The latest attack destroyed their home leaving them with nothing. Barney scrambled up the rubble of their home to find his toy train and red bus but was held off by the air raid warden. At the insistence of his mother, Barney's  grandpa took hin to check his fields and there they found his beloved horse, Big Black Jack dead. Now Barney and his mom are off to stay with her sister in Mevagissey on the Cornwall coast.

In the train with them is a man whom Barney recognizes as the air-raid warden who pulled him off the rubble on Mulberry Street. Barney says nothing to his mother. But when his mother falls asleep on the train, Barney tells the stranger he recognizes him from Mulberry Street. The air-raid warden who is referred to as the stranger, tells Barney he should be fighting alongside Barney's father but a wound from the last war has prevented him from being accepted. Everyone has told him he has done his part and has the medals to prove it. 

While looking out the window, Barney spots what he thinks is a Spitfire, a British plane coming directly towards the train. However the stranger recognizes that it is a German Messerschmitt that is attacking the train. He pushes Barney and his now wide awake mother to the floor. The train races along faster and faster until it reaches a tunnel and roars inside. Then they hear the brakes screeching as the train struggles to stop inside the tunnel.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspecting Coventry Cathedral.

The tunnel is pitch black and Barney doesn't like the darkness. The stranger tells them that they will have to wait inside the tunnel until the German fighters are gone. He offers to tell Barney and his mother a story to pass the time waiting, just like they used to do in the trenches during the Great War. 

His story is about his friend, William Byron, who went by the name of Billy Byron and how the two of them grew up on Mulberry Street and then joined the army. At first being in the army was an adventure. The air-raid man and Billy were given good food, clothing and sent to South Africa. However, war came to Europe and they soon found themselves sent to the front where conditions were very different. 

On a march to the front, Billy encountered a little girl, an orphan girl, who was close to death. Against the orders of his Sergeant, he picked up the girl and took her to the field hospital. He was certain the little girl was trying to tell him her name was Christine. This experience made him determined to stop the war as quickly as possible. 

The stranger continues his story as they wait for the German aircraft to leave so the train can leave the safety of the tunnel. At times Barney becomes upset at the darkness, so as he's telling the story, the stranger strikes matches to comfort him with their light. Barney learns that Billy Byron was a brilliant soldier who was seriously wounded several times and won many medals including the Victoria Cross.

But near the end of the war, he spared the life of a German soldier who was dazed and wandered out of the battlefield near the village of Marcoing. Billy felt there had been more than enough killing, so he fired a shot in the air, and the little soldier laid down his gun and walked off.  For the Battle of Marcoing, Billy was awarded the Victoria Cross, pinned on his chest by King George V.

Like most Great War veterans life was not easy after the war. Billy eventually located Christine and they married. At times he seemed fine, other times troubled. As Adolf Hitler comes to power and hostilities begin between Germany and Britain, a fateful night in the cinema reveals to Billy the seemingly terrible consequences of good deed done years ago.

Discussion

An Eagle In The Snow is loosely based on the life of Henry Tandey who was a British soldier in World War I. Tandey was a Private in the Green Howard regiment. He survived the Battle of Ypres and was awarded the three highest awards for heroism in a six-week period in 1918. It is uncertain that Henry Tandey ever met Adolf Hitler. 

The story holds that they met each other at the Battle of Marcoing when a soldier wandered into the British lines and Tandey refused to shoot him because he was wounded. That soldier was supposedly Adolf Hitler.  In his Afterword, Morpurgo explores the myth behind the story of Henry Tandey, who stated that if he had met Hitler he simply did not remember him. So readers can decide for themselves if Tandey really did encounter Hitler near the end of the Great War:

Morpurgo tells his story with simplicity, capturing both the devastation experienced by Coventry during the Blitz in 1940 as well as the hardships of soldiers during the First World War. The story provides the framework for young readers to explore the question, "What if doing what you believe is the right action at the time seems to be the wrong choice in the end?"  "What if showing compassion towards another human being doesn't pay off?" The novel offers readers the opportunity to explore these questions along with the themes of compassion, heroism, and war. 

In An Eagle In The Snow, readers are confronted with Byron's moral dilemma to rectify what now seems like a wrong. Years ago he encountered a wounded Adolf Hitler. Sick of war and the killing, he spared the German soldier's life only to learn years later he became history's more cruel dictator. After seeing Hitler in a news reel about Hitler's aggressions, Billy was consumed by the thought that somehow his act of virtue in saving a life, had led to war. Then his guilt seems to be resolved by a phone call from Prime Minister Chamberlain who tells Billy that in a meeting with Hitler, the German leader expressed gratitude towards the British soldier who spared his life years earlier. This gives Billy a brief respite, hope that Hitler is not going to turn out to be the evil man he seems to be. That is until Germany wages war on Europe.

Determined to rectify what he considers a terrible mistake, Billy Byron sets out for Hitler's stronghold of  the Berghof, in the Alps, near Berchtesgaden. He spends days in a village near the Berghof, drawing the eagles that wheeled through the air. But when Billy finally does meet Hitler outside his home, he is knocked down by an Alsatian who is very friendly. Billy had just watched an eagle swoop in and pick off a hare, leaving behind the blood-stained snow. Billy finds himself unable to carry through with his plan, and although Hitler recognizes him, he once again just walks away. He can no more kill Hitler in 1939 than he could back in 1918. He cannot bring himself to do something that is morally wrong to achieve a good. 

Perhaps the outstanding feature of this novel, is the way in which the story is told. The story employs third person omniscient point of view to tell the present story set in 1940, while the stranger uses third person to tell Billy Byron's story. Neither the reader nor Barney know the identity of the stranger until the very end. Although Billy Byron's story is that of Henry Tandey, it should be noted that Tandey did not attempt to rectify his decision  of 1918 by returning to Germany.

An Eagle In The Snow has a great cover to draw readers in but the book is marred by poor binding and likely won't last long in even the most caring of readers. The novel has the lovely pencil illustrations by Michael Foreman which often feature in Morpurgo's novels. Quite simply, this is another outstanding story for children and adults from this award-winning British author.

Image credit: https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/ww1-henry-tandey-adolf-hitler-7184044  

Book Details:

An Eagle In The Snow by Michael Morpurgo
London: HarperCollins 2015
265 pp.

September 17 by Amanda West Lewis

September 17 has a large cast of characters and tells the story of the sinking of the SS City of Benares from the perspectives of three different characters. It is early September, 1940 and thirteen year old Kenneth John (Ken) Sparks is terrified of taking shelter under the arches of Wembley Park Station. Every air raid, Ken has pleaded with his father to allow him to stay in their flat and every time his father has refused telling him has to shelter there along with his younger sister Mollie and his stepmother. With their situation becoming more dire in terms of being able to feed everyone, Ken's stepmother convinces his father to place him into the CORB program. They arrange for Ken to stay at his stepmother's sister in Edmonton. Ken packs a small suitcase and his stepmother gives him his father's new overcoat to keep him warm.

Fourteen year old Elizabeth (Bess) Walder doesn't want to move to the country in the fall to attend St. Alban's school. She wants to stay at home with her parents and get to know the young fire man, Gareth she recently met. When Gareth enlists, Bess is disappointed but she learns from him that his younger brother is being sent to Canada as part of the CORB program. This leads Bess to try a different tact with her mother and suggest that she and her younger brother Louis go to Canada too. Eventually her parents agree to send them both to an aunt who lives in Winnipeg. Bess and Louis connect with CORB at the train station and board a train to Liverpool. During their journey to the port they meet a young girl, Gussie Grimmond, who is in charge of her four younger siblings. Bess also meets another girl at Fazakerley, Beth Cummings, who will live in Toronto with her aunt and uncle. Beth is just as excited as Bess to be traveling to Canada. They quickly become good friends and nickname each other Princess Elizabeth and Queen Bess.After a brief stay at the Children's Homes in Fazakerley, they board the ship for Canada.

Sonia Bech, her sister Barbara and younger brother, nine year old Derek, live in Aldwick, south of London, near Portsmouth. Sonia's father works in London and returns home only on the weekends. Compared to many British, Sonia and her family are well off. Fearing an invasion by the Germans is imminent, Sonia's father purchases four first class tickets on the SS City of Benares to send his family to safety in Montreal, QC. While Sonia is thrilled to be leaving on such an adventure, Barbara views the trip as an act of cowardice. Nevertheless, they pack their steamer trunks and take the train to Liverpool where they board the City of Benares.

On the City of Benares, all the children settle into the respective quarters. The CORB children are placed in the stern of the ship along with their escorts while the wealthy paying passengers are located up front. The crew of the City of Benares consists of the British officers as well as Indian men called lascars who cook, clean and keep the ship functioning. Captain Nicolls assures Sonia and her mother that they will be quite safe from the German U-boats as they will be escorted by a navy destroyer.

Ken, Bess, Beth and the rest of the CORB children are fed delicious food, have access to a playroom filled with toys and are told that they must carry their lifejackets with them at all times until they are out of the range of the U-boats. During rough weather, many of the children suffer from sea-sickness, but they do manage to spend some time enjoying themselves and making new friends. Then one morning they awaken to find that their navy escort is gone and they are considered to be in safe, neutral waters. But the British couldn't be more wrong. Their exciting adventure is about to turn deadly.

Discussion

In the summer of 1940, Great Britain was in the throes of what became known as "the Blitz" or the Battle of Britain- the bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany in an attempt to force the British into either surrendering or as a prelude to invasion under the code name of Operation Sea Lion. The bombing began in July and lasted throughout the remainder of 1940 and into 1941, but most of the severest bombing occurred between July and October of 1940. Both civilians and the military were targeted, with much destruction and loss of life. However, the Royal Air Force (RAF) valiantly fought back to protect British airfields, industries and cities. The destruction, fires and general terror that the bombing caused made many British decide to send their children into the countryside away from the bombing, or further north and west, away from German bombers to Scotland and Wales.

Some children however were to be sent overseas to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) organized the transport of over 200,000 children to these countries as a way to protect them from the bombing and the possible, imminent invasion by Germany. This was to be a temporary relocation as the children were expected to return after the war was over. The children could apply through their schools and they were to travel alone (without parents) but in the company of escorts who were often teachers and young people selected for this dangerous job. The children were placed on boats as part of convoys guarded by navy destroyers from German U-boat (submarine) attacks. But with the escalation of the war against Britain, these attacks turned deadly.

In August 30, 1940, the SS Volendam which was transporting three hundred and twenty children to Halifax, Nova Scotia was torpedoed by a U-boat. All of the children survived but the Volendam had to be evacuated and it was towed to Scotland for repairs. There were 120 CORB children on the Volendam.  However, a second CORB transport was torpedoed on September 17, 1940. This ship, SS City of Benares was not so lucky. September 17 tells the story of some of the crew and CORB children and what happened on that fateful voyage.

September 17 is a vivid recounting this terrible disaster which ultimately ended the CORB program of transporting British children out of the country. Only thirteen of the ninety CORB children on the City of Benares survived the sinking. Because the ship sank in approximately thirty minutes, it was very difficult to launch the life boats properly meaning that many of the ships crew and passengers did not end up safely in the boats. Instead, many were dumped into the frigid Atlantic waters and likely died of hypothermia.

Lewis was inspired to write the story of the sinking of the SS City of Benares after seeing an exhibit called "The Children's War" in London, England. The author did considerable research for her novel and she explains in an interview in the back of the book how the survivors of one of the lifeboats coped with the tragedy throughout their lives. Her excellent research is reflected in the novel as Lewis effectively combines historical information with her story. For example, we learn that the British families were truly struggling during the early part of the war to feed their families. The children in the novel complain about being hungry and are completely overwhelmed by the choice of food they are given on board the ship to Canada.

The dialogue between the children and the adults and also between one another is realistic. Lewis also effectively demonstrates that for each child, the journey to Canada was perceived differently and that each had their own emotional response to being sent away. Ken Sparks had mixed feelings, but mostly as a boy on the cusp of manhood, he wanted to grow up and enter the navy. In contrast, little Louis was not so keen to leave home.

September 17 is a well written novel about an event that has mostly been forgotten by history, remembered only by the family of those who lost loved ones and those who survived. But it's good that we remember the unexpected tragedies of war - the sinking of a boat carrying innocent children to a safe life in another country and also the cost of war. The U-boat commander claimed he did not know the convoy was comprised of a ship carrying children. When the Germans saw such a large convoy, they determined that it must be an important one and so made the decision to attack the ships. Even later, he did not apologize for what he had done, although the radio operators on the submarine felt remorse. We must remember and learn if we are to prevent such tragedies in the future. Lewis dedicated her novel to the children who died on September 17. In the front of her novel, Amanda Lewis has a wonderful quote by poet and director, Eve Merriam,

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?' "

Book Details:
September 17 by Amanda West Lewis
Markham ON: Red Deer Press 2013
313 pp.