The Skylarks’ War by Hilary McKay

The Skylarks’ War marks the centenary of the end of the First World War and is a classic in the making.

An evocative and heartbreaking novel of family and friendship in wartime from Hilary McKay, award-winning author of the Casson Family Chronicles.

Book blurb

The Skylarks’ War is a beautiful story following the loves and losses of a family growing up against the harsh backdrop of World War One, from the award-winning Hilary McKay.

Clarry and her older brother Peter live for their summers in Cornwall, staying with their grandparents and running free with their charismatic cousin, Rupert. But normal life resumes each September – boarding school for Peter and Rupert, and a boring life for Clarry at home with her absent father, as the shadow of a terrible war looms ever closer.

When Rupert goes off to fight at the front, Clarry feels their skylark summers are finally slipping away from them. Can their family survive this fearful war?

My thoughts

This is the story of Clarissa ‘Clarry’ Penrose and her brother Peter along with their cousin Rupert and friends Simon, his sister Vanessa and Violet. It starts in 1902 and finishes sometime after 1918.

This is a wonderful story it depicts life in the early 20th century for Clarry and Co. in language that brings an understanding of the times so clearly and without fuss. It will make you laugh, cry and it will carry you along with the delightful and the dreadful stories of childhood and youth. Clarry is wonderful and Hilary McKay has used her voice beautifully to bring her family, friends and the period vividly to life.

An outstanding book, exquisitely written which will engage the reader and draw them into the lives, the life and the times keeping them engrossed until the very end.

This book may be for 9-11 year olds but it is a book that anyone who reads will be captivated by. It is timely to be published on the 100th anniversary of WWI ending but this is not solely a wartime story and so can be read at any time and, surely, it will be read often and by many over the years. Of course, it can and should be used as a vehicle in the study of the Great War and young peoples, especially girls, lives at the time in schools, libraries and homes. This is a book worthy of any and every bookshelf everywhere, deserved of all the praise and plaudits it has and should receive. I liked it and would highly recommend to all.

I received an e-copy off The Skylarks’ War from the publisher via NetGalley – for which, my thanks. I have not received any payment and all thoughts are my own.

Information

Publisher:        Pan MacMillan Children’s Books

Age Range:      9 – 11 years

Published:       Main Market edition (20 Sept. 2018)

Hardcover:     320 pages             Language: English

ISBN-10: 1509894942                  ISBN-13: 978-1509894949

Buy:               Amazon UK

Author:   

Hilary McKay is a critically acclaimed award-winning author, having won the Guardian Fiction Prize for her first novel, The Exiles, and going on to win the Smarties and the Whitbread (now the Costa) Award for The Exiles in Love and Saffy’s Angel. Hilary studied Botany and Zoology at the University of St Andrews and went on to work as a biochemist, before the draw of the pen became too strong and she decided to become a full-time writer. Hilary McKay’s Fairy Tales was her first book with Macmillan Children’s Books and is a critically acclaimed classic-in-the-making, whilst her novel The Skylarks’ War is a classic in the making. Hilary lives in Derbyshire with her family.

Hilary McKay Website

@hilary_mckay