When the Sky Falls

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I really liked this book because of the characters and how they changed over time. Joseph, a young dyslexic with anger issues, overcomes his difficulties with sharing emotions and letting people in whilst Mrs F opens up about her family. No wonder he is angry! Bombs are raining down on the city that Joseph is sent to as an evacuee. And anyway, who came up with the stupid idea that he should live with Mrs F. who doesn’t even like children! He knows he should just run away but where would he go? In this deeply moving story of Joseph’s journey of self-discovery Phil Earle not only tells a brilliant story of a child’s emotional development but also added an important and true dimension to World War 2 stories. I think the novel would have benefitted from a few more external prompts and events occuring - a letter from Jospeh's father, a visit to Syd's house, that sort of thing. Moments that would help turn inert ideas into narrative, that would show us firsthand things we need to care about. I liked the issues and themes dealt with in this book. Especially for a children's book, the issues were not sugar coated but presented for all age groups to understand which I liked. These issues could be easily understood through the character development and readability. The dyslexia representation was very good - it was interesting to see it through a child's perspective during the war and especially easy to feel Joseph's frustration as we know what he's talking about, but of course in the 1940's they didn’t. This further strengthened the emotion and understanding of themes in this book. The representation of war time was also great. Earle does a great job of bringing the past to light and keeping it accurate. But as well as revolving around the past this story also develops around the question ‘will they pull the trigger to kill Adonis?’. This question not only keeps a tense and exciting atmosphere but also reaches out to readers - I found myself questioning if I would do it - making it a more immersive experience.

I can absolutely see why the author felt so inspired by that image of a person in a zoo in the blitz, their duty to keep their gun trained on the most dangerous of the animals in case bombing allows the animal's escape. That image remains richly evocative in this book. But I don't think Earle quite nailed the elements to make this the most powerful exploration of that image it could be. A heartwarming story about the value of friendship and trust. In which love plays an important role. When the Sky Falls is a historical fiction middle-grade novel based on a true story. As the war raged around the characters their strengths and weaknesses are brought to the forefront. Joseph is struggling with his life and he reacts the only way he knows by pushing people away and causing mayhem. Mrs F is a stubborn but fair woman who is trying to save her family’s zoo and keep Joseph safe and show him in her own way how to survive. Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood.

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I think Joseph was relatable and that made him more likeable; the way he struggled with his dyslexia and no one believed him evoked sympathy from the reader. The way his family was split up was also sad as his mother had seemingly suffered depression and his father was shot in the war. Although situations like this would have been common at the time, it is interesting to see how it affects Joseph and leads to him closing himself off from all others apart from Adonis. I loved seeing Joseph realise that Adonis thinks, feels and acts in an almost-human way yet he does not reject Joseph like (in his opinion) real people in his life. Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark...

A wonderful story of hurt, kindness, and what it means to be human in an inhumane world.” - The Times of London, Children's Book of the Year I read this book very slowly to savour every chapter and emotional scene. It will most certainly be one of my favourite all time reads. This story was beautifully told with rich language that would be a great resource for Y5/6 writing. It would also make a fantastic class read where pupils can share the emotion and thrill of this story together. The Nottinghill Carnival takes central stage in this story about families, memories and the power of dance and festivals. Author Yaba Badoe tells... In this story of hope and endurance, we follow a scientist and her team during their search for the elusive 'Giant Arctic Jellyfish'.

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Mrs F is also the keeper of the local zoo, which has been in her family for years. There she attends daily to care for the animals that are left behind, including Adonis the Gorilla who is as moody as Joseph is. An extraordinary story with historical and family truth at its heart, that tells us as much about the present as the past. Deeply felt, movingly written, a remarkable achievement’ Michael Morpurgo

My thoughts: I definitely enjoyed spending time with the characters in this one. The story itself, well, the plot was hard-to-take at times. I'll try to explain. Hard on the heart. First impressions: I knew going into this one that it had the potential for sadness. Not necessarily *only* because it had an animal on the cover. That in and of itself wouldn't mean it has to be sad (on principle). Once I knew that this was historical fiction set in England during the Second World War, I knew this one might be a heart-breaker. Again, war books don't always, always have to be sad tearjerkers. But the potential is almost always there. I wanted with all my heart for this NOT to be a sad book. I was okay with the potential for sadness, holding onto hope that even in wartime good things can happen... Joseph's problems become a little clearer as the book progresses. It seemed that he had dyslexia (known as word blindness till the 1960s) and had been all his life. If only it had been diagnosed sooner, he might have suffered less bullying and had a better temperament. But his teachers were ignorant, and his classmates were ruthless. There have been quite a few books dealing with children during the blitz. The horrors and hardships they faced are ones I find truly unimaginable. With such stories, we are stripped of these great heroes and villains we come to expect. What we are left with tends to be more about survival. That living through these events is enough for anyone to go through. In coming to Joseph we see a slightly different view on this. He is someone whose anger we can see boiling up inside him. He feels betrayed and abandoned by all those who are supposed to care for him. And being sent hundreds of miles away only adds to this feeling of isolation. In this case, Joseph never feels overplayed. His feelings and emotions come across as valid to the reader. I think too often writers try and simply their younger characters. They want to show them to be childish and invalidate the experiences they go through. But here I was not only allowed to experience them for what they were but given the reasons behind them.I do appreciate the instinct not to neatly resolve everything neatly, but these aspects just felt like they didn't get the attention they needed. From acclaimed author Phil Earle comes a touching historical fiction story of how a boy and a gorilla find redemption in each other amid the toughest of circumstances. The story opens in a train station where children are being evacuated to the countryside, except Joseph who is being sent to the city by his grandmother. An unlikely friendship develops out of need for teamwork between Joseph and his guardian Mrs F, who is in charge of the city zoo. Joseph is an unhappy lad who is missing his father fighting in the war and unable to comprehend why his mother left him. This story completely consumed me. The author was brilliant as the narrator and he told the story so well on audio. However I am glad I went in quite blind to the book but because wow, I never saw that ending coming. I finished the story completely choked, nodding my head in disbelief with mixed emotions, still thinking through the subjects raised. So many twists it left me in awe and the authors explanation of it been a true story at the end astounded me further. First sentence: The platform was a battlefield: seventy yards of carnage transplated straight from the coasts of northern France. Smoke billowed; people clung to each other.

The characterisation in this book was really good. Each character has an easily recognisable strong personality and together they all contrast very well. This strong characterisation will definitely speak out to younger audiences and make this book popular. I especially like the pairing of Mrs F and Joseph - they are both stubborn yet vulnerable characters yet as the plot develops the unlikely pairing find a home in each other. Joseph was a very dislikable character to begin with, which made the book hard to get into as I couldn’t empathise with him. However, as Layers of his personality are peeled away throughout the book you begin to like him. Joseph has other battles with school, in particular bullying and his serious troubles with reading. Like so many children of his generation, his dyslexia is not recognised or understood. David Almond introduces his new picture book, A Way to the Stars, a story about perseverance and finding a way to make dreams come true.

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Oh wow! When the Sky Falls is the most emotional and exciting middle grade book that I have read this year! Take a moment to look at the front cover more closely. A fabulous illustration that gives you a peek at what lies inside that cover When the Sky Falls took into a part of WW2 that I haven't previously read about. We have read stories about life on the home front but this is a new angle looking at the struggles of a city zoo. Twelve-year-old Joseph has had it tough, not only is there a world war raging, his mum has died, his dad has been enlisted to fight, and now his Grandmother has sent him to London to stay with an old friend of hers after she struggled to cope with him, whilst other children were being evacuated out of the city. An emotional story about young Joseph, a child with dyslexia growing up whilst the war is raging who travels to London to stay with gruff and mysterious Mrs F. This story was beautifully written and There were many things I loved about it.