'This captivating novel vividly describes the details of a wartime city. Best suited to older readers, it's a sometimes sad story of friendship and growing up.' The Week Junior Book of the Week
Description
A Telegraph best new children's book
A Daily Mail book of the year
London, September 1940. Deep in the Underground, taking shelter from the bombs, four teenagers meet.
Without the Blitz, they never would have met.
Fourteen-year-old Ella walks with a limp. Some days, she feels like a laughing stock. Other days, like no one sees her at all. Quinn is fifteen, fancy and fearless. She’s run away from home with a bag of family jewels and big ideas about changing the world. Jack is sixteen and doesn’t care about anything anymore – he’s already lost it all. And then there’s Sebastian, Quinn’s older brother. He used to be her hero. Until he became a traitor
A coming-of-age historical novel for teens from internationally bestselling children's author, Anna Woltz.
Pages224
Released2025
LanguageEnglish
PublisherOneworld Publications
ISBN9781836430629
SellerSimon & Schuster
About the author(s)
Anna Woltz is an internationally bestselling children’s author based in the Netherlands. She has written twenty-six books for young readers, which have been translated into twenty-four languages and won numerous prizes. My Especially Weird Week with Tess, which Rock the Boat will publish in 2023, was made into an award-winning film titled My Extraordinary Summer with Tess. It has been translated into thirteen languages.
Reviews
'Dutch author Woltz vividly reimagines the horror of the London Blitz in this extraordinarily atmospheric coming-of-age novel. Four very different teenagers shelter in the underground tunnels every night, sharing their inner secrets and dreams, but the drive to survive tests their loyalty.' Daily Mail
'The Blitz is conveyed with such urgent realism, wonderful depth and great drama.' Anthony McGowan, author of Dogs of the Deadlands
'Anyone interested in the Blitz will come away the wiser. But it's Woltz's ability to evoke the passions and pathos of a teenage girl that makes this war story so persuasive.' Telegraph best new children's books
'Woltz's achievement is significant.' Books for Keeps
'Gripping, realistic, and surprisingly hopeful, offering glimmers of life’s possibilities once class and economic differences have been erased—if only the characters can survive the war.' BookList
'Powerful… The novel’s climax is genuinely moving… This novel is pitched slightly older than many Blitz stories and is definitely more suitable for Key Stage 3 than Key Stage 2, so might offer something more advanced for readers who have enjoyed other WW2 novels.' Just Imagine
'Readers will ... become invested in each character’s journey and in the electric, terrifying yet somehow hopeful, recreation of the Blitz that Woltz presents us with.' Historical Novel Society
'While the author doesn’t sugarcoat the grim physical and psychological effects of war, she lightens the darkness with banter, romance, and acts of kindness. Historical photos help bring the setting to life. Touching and ultimately hopeful.' Kirkus
'An excellent teen war read… It really gives you an appreciation for life at that time and where some people found themselves sleeping during the bombing raids. Very happy to recommend!’ Independent Book Reviews
'A fabulous title for [YA] readers, set during the Blitz and perfect for those who are looking for a read that will keep them spellbound ... a powerful exploration of what it was like to live through that time – one that has been written with enormous empathy and historical accuracy and one that I read in pretty much one sitting.' Mrs Sydney's Famous World's Smallest Library
