Petra (Pet) lives in a lighthouse on the Kent coast in England just across from France. World War II has begun and the Germans are advancing on France. Petra gives the reader insights into daily life in her small town and the changes people are making because of the war. Gas masks, blackout curtains, rationing, and more recently suspicion. Petra's mum is German. People from Germany are considered to be the enemy. Mrs Angela Helene Zimmerman Smith (Mutti) is taken to a hearing where there can be one of three outcomes:
Category A "aliens were considered a serious threat and were to be locked up in internment camps"
Category B "were not be locked up, but they faced restrictions on where they could live and what they could do"
Category C "were not considered dangerous at all and were free to continue living as normal."
Petra is sure her Mutti will be a category C but she is not. Someone produces maps, drawings and charts in a package that was intercepted on its way to Germany. Mutti is seen, by the court, as posing a threat to national security and she is taken away to an internment camp.
Petra sees strange things going on around her village. She is also acutely aware of the legend surrounding the standing stones near the lighthouse (read the prologue link below). Her sister, Magda or Mags has become distant and silent, her father has dangerous secrets and one of the local boys seems to acting suspiciously. Petra finds important information in many forms but she is not sure who she can tell. Is her father really the spy? Who is the white haired man who lives in a remote cottage not far from their lighthouse? Why has her mother 'confessed' to something she did not do?
This writing is atmospheric. It contains so much carefully researched history but all of this is presented in context and not as an intrusive layer. This is historical fiction at its best. I knew nothing, for example, about Operation Pied Piper. I also loved all the details about the life and work of a lighthouse keeper.
This is a story that can stand along side other classic stories of WWII such as Carries War, When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit, The War the Saved my Life, and Goodnight Mr Tom.
The slow dismantling of Petra’s faith in her loved ones adds a delicious instability to the growing unease of this WWII thriller. Kirkus
You can read the story prologue here. Listen to this review which is filled with enthusiasm and plot details. Here is an interview with Lucy Strange. You can see Lucy Strange here. Listen to an audio sample from page 224.
Themes in middle grade war novels
The confusion of living through these times:
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
Rose Blanche (picture book) by Roberto Innocenti
An elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo
The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
When Jays fly to Barbmo by Margaret Balderson
Evacuation and it's consequences:
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
Vinnie's War by David McRobbie
The War that saved my life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
Letters from the lighthouse by Emma Carroll
Spies, survival and resistance:
What about me? by Gertie Evenhuis
The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin
The upstairs room by Johanna Reiss
Letters from the lighthouse by Emma Carroll
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
A hero on a bicycle by Shirley Hughes
Enemy Aliens:
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata
Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange
Evacuation of Dunkirk:
Our Castle by the Sea by Lucy Strange
The little ships (picture book) by Louise Borden
I would follow Our Castle by the sea with Letters from the Lighhouse. You might also like to read another book by Lucy Strange which I enjoyed: The Secret of Nightingale Wood. Adults might like to search out the movie Their Finest.
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