By Emma Carroll (Faber & Faber)
Set in World War II, this thrilling and tense mystery adventure will keep you guessing to the very end!
When Olive and Cliff’s visit to the cinema with their older sister Sukie gets interrupted by an aid raid, their lives will never be the same.
The children have already lost their father, and when Sukie disappears in the confusion of the bombing raid, it seems that the war is determined to take away everything they hold dear.
With London becoming increasingly unsafe, the two children are evacuated to the Devonshire coast where Sukie’s pen-pal lives. But things are not always what they seem. Far from home and facing hostility, Olive struggles to understand a coded note that she is certain is linked to Sukie’s disappearance…and who knows what else.
Emma Carroll’s book catapults you back to wartime Britain, capturing the fears, determination and courage of the people caught up in it, and the prejudice faced by refugees from war-torn Europe. The descriptions and setting are well-researched, and the themes of grief and friendship underpin the powerful message of the story: that hatred can always be conquered with compassion and understanding.
‘Letters from the Lighthouse’ is her fifth novel, and Emma Carroll is quickly becoming a ‘go-to’ author for historical children’s fiction. Brilliantly bringing to life any period she turns her pen to, it is easy to see why her most recent book was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, as well as being chosen as Waterstones’ Book of the Month for May 2017.
