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.
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