That Burning Summer

by Lydia Syson

Overview

It’s July 1940 on the south coast of England. A plane crash-lands in the marsh, and sixteen-year-old Peggy finds its broken pilot—a young Polish airman named Henryk. Afraid and unwilling to return to the fight, Henryk needs a place to hide, and Peggy helps him find his way to a remote, abandoned church.

Meanwhile, Peggy’s eleven-year-old brother Ernest is doing his best to try to understand the war happening around him. He’s reading all the pamphlets—he knows all the rules, he knows exactly what to do in every situation. He’s prepared, but not for Peggy’s hidden pilot.

Told in alternating points of view, this is a beautifully written story about growing up in wartime and finding the difference between following the rules and following your heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510711730
Publisher:	Sky Pony
Publication date:	01/31/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	132,506
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Lydia Syson is the author of A World Between Us and Liberty’s Fire. She is a fifth-generation North Londoner who started her career as a BBC World Service radio producer. A frequent contributor to The History Girls blog, she is also a member of the Scattered Author’s Society, the Society of Authors, the Historical Writers Association, and Children’s Writers and Illustrators in South London. She lives in London, England, with her partner and four children.

Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Editorial Reviews

“A beautiful, enchanting, and memorable book which captured war perfectly and hooked me within its pages.”
—Guardian

“Consistent excellence.”
—Independent, Children’s Books of the Year 2013

“Beautifully evoking the atmosphere of a small rural community under threat, it simmers with tension and intensity.”
—Book Trust

“It is Syson’s beautifully developed characters that make the history come vividly to life.”
—We Love This Book

“A beautiful, enchanting, and memorable book which captured war perfectly and hooked me within its pages.”
—Guardian

“Consistent excellence.”
—Independent, Children’s Books of the Year 2013

“Beautifully evoking the atmosphere of a small rural community under threat, it simmers with tension and intensity.”
—Book Trust

“It is Syson’s beautifully developed characters that make the history come vividly to life.”
—We Love This Book

From the Publisher

11/01/2016
Gr 7 Up—In a novel set during World War II, a Polish (Allied) pilot crash-lands in the marshlands of England. Henryk does not want to return to the fight and is contemplating suicide when he is discovered by Peggy, a young woman whose family has been displaced by the war and is currently living with relatives on a nearby farm. When Peggy finds Henryk, he is cold, wet, and hungry, and after helping him to an abandoned church, she provides him with her father's old clothes and food pinched from the farm's harvest. Then Peggy's younger brother, Ernest, learns what his sister is up to and wants to turn Henryk in, but Peggy convinces Ernest to help keep Henryk safe, at least for the time being. What Henryk and Ernest do not know is that Peggy is hiding an even bigger secret. In alternating viewpoints, the young people tell their stories as they wrestle with their consciences and decide what to do with themselves, and one another, as the war erupts around them. The author's afterword adds historical dimension and factual clarity to the events of the narrative. Teens who enjoyed Ruta Sepetys's Salt to the Sea or Monica Hesse's Girl in the Blue Coat will gravitate to this novel. VERDICT Recommended as an additional purchase for YA World War II collections.—Jillian Woychowski, West Haven High School, CT

School Library Journal

2016-10-19
It's July 1940 on the marshy Kentish coast of England, and the Battle of Britain is being fought overhead. Sixteen-year-old Peggy and her 11-year-old brother, Ernest, are helping out on their uncle's farm while their mother works in a nearby town. Their father's gone; it's not clear where, though Peggy is clearly ashamed by his absence. All of England expects a German invasion. Ernest sees a plane get swallowed by the marsh; Peggy, awake that night, discovers its pilot, who bailed out: not a German but a Polish refugee named Henryk flying for the RAF. Henryk can't bring himself to rejoin the fight, so Peggy hides him in an abandoned church nearby. Told in chapters that alternate perspectives among Peggy, Ernest, and Henryk, Syson does a beautiful job capturing the essence of the war in rural England. All three people are well-rounded, and descriptions and dialogue propel readers forward—unfortunately, to a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion that feels added on, a sudden spurt of adventure in what had been a novel of character. The mystery of Peggy and Ernest's dad is very nearly an afterthought. Rewarding on many levels, but it doesn't deliver all that it seems to promise. (Historical fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews