This book was beautiful and has prompted me to read everything else by Phil Earle. With realistic characters, a very different setting to other war fiction, and a totally different take on life as a teenager during the war, this was gripping and emotional. I'd recommend it as a class read. It's super.

And absolutely brilliant book. Children will adore the relationship between boy and gorilla. I loved the main character. Also a positive representation of children struggling with something. Think schools, especially year 6 will live this book.

Blitz-set animal-boy story of anger, loss and friendship.

I do like Phil Earle, he chooses some wonderful protagonists to show readers differing perspectives on childhood and experiences.

Here there is the historical aspect as well, which will endear this book to teachers in KS2 - it's a World War II setting, right in the middle of the Blitz. And there's an animal welfare story wrapped inside it, as well as a fostering relationship, some bullying, and an uneasy parent-child backstory that gives the main character his emotional drive.

Joseph is 'evacuated' to London in the middle the Blitz, with nobody willing or able to look after him at home, an old family friend takes responsibility. Joseph is angry, a lasher-out, and not at all prepared to be polite or accommodating. Probably just as well that Mrs F doesn't take nonsense and has her own busy life to manage.

The obvious signs of dyslexia soon become apparent to the reader as Joseph reluctantly attends school and finds himself looked on sternly by his new teacher and with mocking scorn by other pupils. Still, there's a new friend to be had. And Mrs F keeps him busy at the zoo she looks after. Now abandoned by most but with animals still in need of care and food, the mourning male gorilla interests the angry boy. Adonis.

With bombs dropping nightly and humiliation and anger boiling up inside Joseph all day, the life he finds himself in might need him to look outside his own problems and look at the needs of those around him.

A slight tendency towards 'telling not showing' jarred slightly for me, but other than that, I loved the characters, the context and the sadness of this story. There are battles within and without, bombs of anger and bombs of war. Everyone has their own internal battles raging, sorrows and emotions, and the reader will pick up on this. Adonis is central to the story and the heart of what becomes a dark tale.

It is very visual, the pairing of Joseph and Mrs F as strong-willed but suffering antagonists works, both with clear good hearts. Readers will find themselves hoping for a happy ending.

I expect teachers to use this novel for multiple purposes in schools, it's a wonderful bringing together of different themes within the setting.

For ages 9-13.

A stunning book. Couldn’t put it down. Sensitive but strong, heart-wrenching but heart-warming, has you laughing & crying. Read it NOW - you will love it too.

When The Sky Falls is a simply stunning book. From the very first pages, I knew it would be one of those books which I would constantly be recommending - I was not wrong.
Unlike most books about children during the Blitz, Joseph isn’t fleeing London - he is just arriving. With his father off fighting in the war, he has become unmanageable for his grandmother and is shipped off to stay with the formidable Mrs F in her London home. However, Mrs F isn’t all as she seems and Joseph soon finds out she is trying to run a rather depleted zoo. After Joseph comes face to face with Adonis, a huge male silverback, he begins to see a different side to Mrs F, and to himself.
Earle’s prose is beautiful and the characters are so well developed you become drawn in straight away. It is perfect for fans of Hilary McKay’s The Skylarks’ War or Emma Carroll’s historical fiction. I am sure this will become a future classic.

When the Sky Falls is a masterful and moving story about four individuals who find solace in one another against the odds. These characters have all experienced unparalleled tragedy, even though two are not adults yet, and one is not even human. World War II is a popular theme in books and literature, but When the Sky Falls offers a fresh and unique perspective. Rather than being exclusively about the impact of war on humans, it also explores how animals are affected and what happens to zoos and their inmates.

Instead of being evacuated to a place of greater safety like most children, Joseph is sent from the country to London city. This was when school was itself a battleground, thanks to corporal punishment, and children who struggled academically were penalised rather than helped. If, like Joseph, you had dyslexia, you were more likely to be caned than receive any support.

Joseph has been discarded or disappointed by everyone he trusts, and his behaviour reflects this. Mrs. F, the zookeeper who reluctantly takes Joseph in, has also been hardened by devastating events and uses a gruff exterior as a defence mechanism too. Syd helps Mrs. F at the zoo; caring for the animals and making herself useful distracts Syd from her grief.

Adonis, the silver-backed gorilla is a commanding presence throughout the book and an incredibly compelling and affecting character. He has suffered enormously during his time in captivity. Although Adonis never says a word, his misery is clearly expressed by his body language and Phil Earle’s wonderfully evocative writing.

The anger that festers inside Joseph is comparable to a caged beast. His quick temper frequently gets him into trouble and alienates him from others. It becomes apparent that Joseph’s actions are due to his circumstances, what he has endured, and feeling inferior to others, rather than an inherent badness. Bombs drop from the sky and are a constant threat to everyone’s safety. But what will ultimately be the most destructive force in Joseph’s life - the war with Hitler or his war with himself?

This story is powerfully written with tremendous scope and emotional impact. The reader feels all the cold, hunger and fear to which the characters are subjected. The school is absolutely terrifying, and the awful headmaster and his cane filled me with just as much dread as the air raid sirens.

Author Phil Earle spoke at a recent “Children’s Book Salon” organised by Irish author Sarah Webb and Trish Hennessy of children’s bookshop, Halfway up the Stairs. Phil mentioned that he is currently working on more stories set during World War II. I can’t wait to read them, especially if they are as outstanding as this one.

I can’t recommend When the Sky Falls highly enough, but I do recommend stocking up on tissues before beginning it! I would avoid reading this book in public unless you are comfortable with strangers seeing you cry. I finished it at the beach and was grateful for the sunglasses which concealed my tear-stained eyes. With captivating characters and an arresting plot that’s as potent as a bomb, this is a memorable and majestic work of fiction.

When The Sky Falls - a raw, emotional, breathtaking read.
The fizzing anger of Joseph set against the Blitz, makes for such an atmospheric, tension filled read.
So good!
STILL thinking about it!

Oh my word, When The Sky Falls is such an epic book, it has so much going on, it will keep you reading on and on and on.
Joseph is angry, he feels that everyone has abandoned him: his mum, his dad and now his gran has sent him back to London to live with a strange old woman. As bombs fall around him, Joseph learns more about the grumpy Mrs F and the animals she protects. He finds everything about his new life difficult; doing as he is told, going to school, reading and dealing with other people. Joseph is isolated and finds it difficult to trust people but he develops a grudging respect for Adonis the Silverback gorilla that is the star of Mrs F's zoo, not least when Adonis appears to protect him from a trespassing bully. But a horrible dilemma means that Adonis is not safe either and Joseph unites with Mrs F to save him.
Heartbreakingly realistic.

WOW! What an emotional and breathtaking read that will stay with me for a very long time. This sure is a wartime tale with a difference and I think will really connect with children in a unique way. The characters are engaging and shine through the pages even though they are going through such hardship. Friendship and trust is right at the heart of the novel and the main ingredients in what made it so special.

I can’t wait to start recommending this to kids in work!

We join the story with Joseph stepping off a train to start a new life against the backdrop of WW2, and the anger and confusion that naturally come with such a situation. This is his story of finding himself and finding a family. I adored this, racing through it in one weekend; packed full of emotion, tension and love, this is a historical fiction novel that will appeal to all ages. When The Sky Falls is out on June 3rd, and should be on everyone’s list of books to read this Summer.
Thanks to NetGallery and Andersen Press for the chance to read this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not quite sure what I could add to all of the 5star reviews and glowing praise this book has already (rightfully) received. But I will try.
This is an exceptional book. From the very beginning when we meet Joseph, his blazing anger already screaming off the page, to the very end, when Joseph and Mrs F has been through hell, an exceptional book. I always enjoy children's fiction set against the backdrop of WW2 and this one sits alongside Goodnight Mr Tom - though it is very different, it shares some similar themes. The way Phil Earle handles the character of Joseph, his anger and trauma and pain, is masterful.
I won't give any spoilers obviously, so I won't discuss the ending. All I will say is that bookshops in Scotland open on the 26th April, and I cannot wait to get back in so I can tell every customer that they need to read this book.

What a brilliant book. It’s full of emotion and tension throughout. I loved the main characters (including Adonis the gorilla) and seeing their uneasy relationship develop over the course of the book and I really enjoyed getting under the skin of both of them as you started to uncover why they were the people they were.

Brilliant historical fiction and a brilliant read. I didn’t want to put it down.

This book...where do I start?!

Myself and my (non-book-loving) eight year old son read this one together at bedtime and it was a story that we were both desperate to get back to each night. Everything about this book was so well crafted - the wartime setting artfully depicted, the characters and the motivation for their actions felt real and authentic and reading it was a really immersive experience. Both me and my eight year old found ourselves commenting on the beauty of some of the language and re-reading bits that we felt especially moved by. I was a total mess by the end! I feel so grateful to have read this book and to have been able to share it with my son - Joseph's behaviour and turbulent emotional life gave us a way in to talk about my son's own behaviour and anger and frustration.....in fact he hasn't been violent since we finished reading it a month ago.

I will be telling EVERYONE about this and I sincerely hope it gets the recognition it deserves on awards prize shortlists. It's a really phenomenal book.

This was simply incredible. The best children’s book I’ve read since The Skylark’s War. It sparked with emotion from start to finish and I never wanted it to end. I would recommend this book to children and adults everywhere.

Raw, powerful & emotional, Phil Earle's unique story of Joseph's anger, hurt & dyslexia during WW2. Plucky characters with so much to teach us, perfect UKS2 read with so many relatable classroom moments. Punchy & pacy, with a hard-hitting ending which lingered... #SequelPlease

This book is fierce! A thrillingly powerful story that sings of the power of connection and compassion. It is devastatingly raw, yet impossible to put down. The historical setting combined with real characters showing all their flaws and traumas makes this a truly moving and immersive read.

An absolutely amazing emotional read. I love how Joseph is so representative of young people who struggle at school. Love the raw emotions that he displays and he begins to thaw and develop a relationship with Mrs F, Syd and Adonis. An incredibly heartbreaking ending but there is a beacon of light for the future for Joseph and Mrs F!

Emotional & intelligent historical fiction set in London during the Blitz. This is a simple, powerful story told very well in clear yet evocative language. Fans of Emma Carroll, Lesley Parr & Michael Morpurgo will love this book.

As soon as I heard about this book, I knew that I would enjoy it. The story is not the common evacuee story, in that the main character is sent to the South whilst his dad is away fighting. The prickly relationship that develops is heartwarming as the characters are united in grief and their determination to save the silverback. This is a story of the harsh reality of war, and as it is based on true events, it’s even more hard hitting. It was a tough read but an incredibly compelling one. Fantastic.

This feels like a terrible way to start my review, but up until a couple of weeks ago I have to confess that I hadn’t read any of the many published books by Phil Earle. After reading and loving The Dog Who Saved the World (Cup), I recognised the name when I was trawling through Net Galley to see what was available and instantly requested this to start to rectify that situation. I’ve said before here how little WWII interests me, but – having enjoyed several titles set during that conflict over the past year – was determined not to let my own dislikes stop me reading this in the hopes of gauging whether or not it would be a title my class would enjoy.

Having finished reading this a couple of days ago, shortly after discussing it briefly on Twitter with someone who had tagged me in to their review, I felt unable to sit down and immediately record my thoughts here – such was the effect it had on me – because this is an incredibly powerful book: one which I am certain children – and adult readers – will love as much as I did; one that will stay with them and one which is a worthy addition to anyone’s bookshelf.

Our story opens in a railway station full of evacuees waiting to be sent away – a scene familiar to many of us – but our protagonist Joseph is not leaving for the country to keep him safe, rather he has just arrived after being sent away from home by his grandmother to stay with a stranger – a woman who introduces herself as Mrs F, before taking him home with her on the bus.

On reaching their destination, a frosty Mrs F runs through the rules of the house – including the drill for any air raids – and packs Joseph off to bed without ceremony, telling him that he will be expected to work the next day. After an incident during the night, which does not encourage Mrs F to warm to him, they both get up the following morning barely speaking and after a tense breakfast set out to go to work. Joseph is taken aback when they reach what is clearly a zoo, especially when Mrs F reveals she does not simply work there but that it belongs to her. The war, however, has had a terrible impact on the zoo and it has few inhabitants – most of whom are in a sorry state – and after a brief look round Joseph is taken to see Adonis, a silverback gorilla who appears to take an instant dislike to him.

The ape is the least of his worries though because Joseph finds that Mrs F has enrolled him at the local school – one which has few pupils remaining on its roll, all of whom are in the care of headmaster Mr Gryce assisted by a cane which he has named Clarence. After getting on the wrong side of Mr Gryce as soon as he meets him, Joseph then finds himself almost immediately in trouble once he reaches the classroom when he reacts badly to a comment made by one of his classmates and his sympathetic teacher is unable to prevent him being punished. At the end of the school day, a deeply frustrated Joseph returns to the zoo together with Syd – a girl from school who also works there and who offers to help him with his school work, but Joseph lets her know in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t want or need her help.

As time goes by, Joseph spends more and more time at the zoo and he and Adonis gradually warm to one another. The boy finds himself starting to look forward to seeing the great ape but the threat of war is ever there and when the air raids get closer and closer to the zoo, a helpless Joseph finds himself faced with the terrible prospect of having to take terrible action if Adonis’s cage is breached by the enemy’s bombs…

Children such as Joseph, who have suffered terrible upsets in their short lives, are familiar to all of us who work in schools and are increasingly apparent in the pages of the books I share. That is not to say that this is a new thing in children’s literature – Matilda in the Roald Dahl classic is clearly an abused child – but what is new is the presentation of these children in a far more realistic way. Where Matilda is a stereotypically polite and well-behaved little girl, Joseph is anything but. He is rude and his default setting is anger – lashing out verbally and physically at those around him in response to many of the interactions he has, no matter whether they are negative or positive, in a desperate attempt to gain attention.

When he arrives at Mrs F’s, he is aware that this is his last chance but neither of them warms to the other straight away. She is keen to do the right thing by him, but does not know how to go about it and he is not prepared to meet her halfway. In fact, on arriving, he seems determined to try to upset her as much as he can in the hopes of provoking a response from her. We so often see this pattern of behaviour in schools and it lends the story an incredibly strong ring of truth – one which had me hooked in from the very start of the story. This intense sense of realism will also make this title a very powerful class reader for teachers who not only want a book to tie in with a WWII topic, but want one which will have their charges on the edges of their seats; additionally it will also trigger some very useful PSHE discussions.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is one that I would suggest is probably not suitable as a Year 4 class reader, but certainly more mature readers of that age and upper KS2 children will love this story, as will any adult sharing it with them.

An enormous thank you to both Net Galley and Andersen Press for allowing me to read this in advance of publication on June 3rd. A magnificent 5 out of stars.