Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

The -heart-sinking- wail of air-raid sirens, sparse food rations, and the agonizing separation from loved ones permeate this poignant story set in suburban Liverpool during the winter of 1940-1941, when the city was bombarded by Hitler-s Luftwaffe. In a preface, Hughes (Hero on a Bicycle) notes that she lived in the same area at the time as a teenager, so -it was very easy for me to imagine- the life of her heroine, 13-year-old Joan Armitage. She makes it easy for readers to do the same. An insightful observer, Joan empathizes with her lonely older sister, whose beau is serving in the Merchant Navy, and her stoic mother, who is still mourning her husband-s death at sea years earlier. In a subplot, Joan befriends Ania, a Polish refugee who is scorned by many, and protects the girl-s uncle, who deserts the army to find Ania. Amid the turmoil, Joan finds solace in creating art and her steadfast bond with Ania. Avoiding sensationalism, sentimentality, or predictability, Hughes shapes a real and raw novel helmed by a wise and gutsy protagonist. Ages 10-up. (Nov.)

ALA Booklist (Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Living on the outskirts of Liverpool in 1940, 13-year-old Joan experiences the terrors of the Blitz, hardships such as food rationing, and the discomfort of watching a slick, unlikable army captain court her widowed mother. School continues as usual, though a new classmate arrives from Poland and, after Joan befriends her, confides her story of fleeing from the Nazis via the Kindertransport. When a stranger is seen lurking in her family's garden at night, the unsettling event reveals a mystery with a surprising twist and a satisfying conclusion. The well-drawn wartime background is a constant presence, affecting many areas of the characters' lives, and drawing readers into their story. Hughes, who was a 13-year-old in a Liverpool suburb during WWII, transports readers to that time and place through vivid details of commonplace sights and activities. Realistically flawed, but consistent and motivated by their individual concerns, the characters set in motion certain subplots that intersect as the story evolves. An eventful historical novel with a distinctive setting.

Kirkus Reviews

Schoolgirl Joan Armitage is trying to adjust to life in her suburb near Liverpool in 1940, when everyone tries to carry on a normal life despite nightly air raids on the Liverpool docks by the Luftwaffe. Joan's father, a wireless operator on an oil tanker, was lost in the mid-Atlantic when his ship caught fire and sank, and she knows quite a few girls at school who have lost a father or brother in the war, too. Now Joan's mother, brother, and two sisters are just getting by. Hughes' matter-of-fact third-person narrative details how, despite the dangers of wartime, daily life can be boring, made bearable by friends, school life, an occasional movie, American music on the radio, and chores such as collecting salvage. While her previous World War II novel, Hero on a Bicycle (2013), offered the excitement of an occupied city (Florence) with a resistance movement, Joan's comparatively uneventful life is not without intrigue: who is that mysterious man Joan has seen in her yard? What's the story behind the new Polish girl in school? Why has Capt. Ronnie Harper Jones begun hanging around Joan's house, and how does he always manage to bring parcels of goodies? Aside from Polish Ania, the book's diversity does not extend much past Anglican Joan's Catholic and Jewish classmates. A fine war novel about living life despite trying circumstances. (Historical fiction. 9-14)