Her and Tommy's conversations end up extremely one-sided, where she doesn't listen to him or brushes off his valid concerns with the same energy of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The only person who can make him smile is Sally, an evacuee from Tyneside living with sour old Farmer Scarcross who is their nearest neighbour. As the story develops, the stakes grow ever higher for Sally and Tommy and this will keep readers gripped as Cuckoo Summer moves towards its conclusion, when secrets are revealed and a way forward is found. Given that Earle wrote WHEN THE SKY FALLS, one of my favourite wartime stories, as well as the more recently published WHILE THE STORM RAGES, which I also thoroughly enjoyed, my expectations were high.

Against all odds, the navigator escapes by parachute, landing in a remote dale where he is discovered by local boy, Tommy, and evacuee, Sally.There are echoes of that great storyteller Robert Westall, of Machine Gunners fame, but the story brings Goodnight Mister Tom to mind too – high praise, and thoroughly deserved. The cast of characters include Tom’s Auntie Annie whose stoical but caring attitude is in sharp contrast to the bitter, anger displayed by Mr Scarcross. But then they find a German airman, he'd parachuted out of a plane that was coming down in Woundale.

When the children discover a German airman has landed in the nearby woods, Sally is determined to save the young soldier from the threatening clutches of Starcross and Tommy is roped in to help. I have even talked the head into a little revamp of the library so that we can display them properly! Scarcross isn’t the only bully amongst their neighbours, and Sally is as much the hunted as the man she’s so determined to protect. I only started to vaguely feel interested in her when her secrets came to light, and even then she was frustrating. I grew fond of some of the characters and think that Silent Simon who works on the Scarcross farm deserves a story of his own.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Set in a Lake District farming community in 1940, the story follows the adventure of two children, local boy Tommy - who tells the story - and Tyneside evacuee, Sally. Candy Gourlay introduces Wild Song, her companion novel to Bone Talk, in which Luki and Samkad leave their home in the Philippines for America. This one would work well in city schools because it shows a life completely different from the city and the many traditions which still occur - such as the sheep shearing. Now at last, after many, many attempts, I’ve built all the parts into a book – I first began it 25 years ago.