'When The Sky Falls' by Phil Earle is a fantastic book; a kids' story that punches well above its weight; a WW2 novel that burrows so hard into the emotional displacement and traumas of war, and the reality of the Blitz, that it comes up with a survivor's tale of enormous depth.
Modern classics 'A Monster Calls' by Patrick Ness, and 'The Skylark's War' by Hilary McKay, are in their own way reference points, but 'When The Sky Falls' is entirely its own animal; and indeed the story even includes one, in the shape of a totemic silver back gorilla, as threatened by the chaos of the falling bombs as any of the human beings, and as intertwined in their survival as the neighbouring families hiding in the air raid shelters.
Uncompromising and surprising in its story twists and turns, 'When The Sky Falls' is a book to recommend without hesitation.
Peter :-)