Skylarks' War
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A Boston Globe Best Book of 2018
A Horn Book Best Book of 2018
“Vivid, hilarious, and heartbreaking.” —Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity
“The best children’s book I’ve read this year.” —Katherine Rundell, Boston Globe–Horn Book Award–winning author of Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms
“A near-miraculous balance of light and joyous touch with sometimes serious and even heartbreaking material.” —BCCB (starred review)
From award-winning author Hilary McKay comes a “wholly satisfying” (Booklist, starred review) story full of wit, heartbreak, and hope as a girl fights for her independence during World War I.
Clarry Penrose finds the good in everyone. Even in her father, who isn’t fond of children, and especially girls. He doesn’t worry about her education, because he knows she won’t need it. It’s the early twentieth century, and the only thing girls are expected to do is behave.
But Clarry longs for a life of her own. She wants to dive off cliffs and go swimming with her brother Peter and cousin Rupert. And more than anything, she wants an education. She helps Peter with his homework all the time, so why can’t she manage it by herself? When war breaks out, Clarry is shocked to find that Rupert has enlisted. Then he is declared missing, and Clarry is devastated. Now she must take a momentous step into the wide world—for if she misses this chance, she may never make it.
This is an inspirational, funny, and heartwarming story about a girl who dares to open doors that the world would rather keep closed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Deftly interweaving humor and heart, McKay crafts an intricate novel exploring the overlapping realms of family, friendship, and romantic love in early-20th-century England. Since clever Clarry's mother died soon after she was born, Clarry and her disgruntled older brother, Peter, have lived with their aloof, dour father, who believes that girls don't deserve education and criticizes Peter for sharing his books with his sister. Sent to boarding school against his will, Peter befriends Simon, a sensitive loner who likewise struggles to discover where he belongs. As she did in her books starring the eccentric Casson family and irrepressible Binny, the author introduces credible, memorable characters whom readers will readily embrace. The novel's most dazzling personalities, though, belong to Simon's impulsive and big-hearted sister, Vanessa, who nurses injured soldiers after WWI breaks out, and Clarry and Peter's charismatic cousin, Rupert, who ships out to France with the British army and is wounded at the front. The characters' intricate relationships and deep bonds give unusual emotional ballast to the story, which provides a poignant portrait of an era and a war "where absolutely nothing made sense" and of teens catapulted prematurely into adulthood. Ages 10 14.
