When the Sky Falls
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4.9 • 16 Ratings
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- £4.49
Publisher Description
The multi-award-winning story about the incredible friendship between a young boy and a silverback gorilla in the Second World War, inspired by a true story.
1941. War is raging. And Joseph has been sent to live in the city, where bombers rule the skies. There, he will live with Mrs F, a gruff woman with no fondness for children. Her only loves are the rundown zoo she owns and its mighty silverback gorilla, Adonis. As the weeks pass, Joseph and Adonis become friends, but what will happen when the bombers set him rampaging free?
Other animal war stories by Phil Earle include:
While the Storm Rages
Until the Road Ends
Winner of the British Book Award for Children's Fiction Book of the Year.
‘A magnificent story... It deserves every prize going’ Philip Pullman
‘An extraordinary story... Deeply felt, movingly written, a remarkable achievement’ Michael Morpurgo
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1941 Britain, following his father's conscription and the effects of his own explosive anger, 12-year-old Joseph Palmer is sent from Yorkshire to bombed-out London to live with gruff Mrs. F, caretaker of her family's deteriorating zoo. Capable Mrs. F struggles to keep the remaining animals alive, particularly "the pride of the zoo"—a silverback gorilla named Adonis, to whom, after a disastrous first meeting, Joseph takes an immediate dislike. Despite his burgeoning friendship with a classmate who assists at the zoo, school represents difficulties for Joseph, as he navigates bullies, a cruel schoolmaster, and severe dyslexia in addition to exhausting, almost nightly air raids. Solace from this unrelentingly bleak existence appears in an unlikely form, as the child slowly gains the gorilla's trust and it becomes clear that Joseph is not the only one battling the pain of loss. Equal parts gripping and emotionally devastating, Earle's (The Bubble Wrap Boy) detail-rich novel explores the healing power of hard-won interspecies friendship amid a harrowing depiction of wartime grief and resilience. Characters cue as white. Ages 9–11.
