There are two worlds in this book - the one the children are experiencing and the complex one adults are talking about. The year is 1962 and the big world event is the Cuban missile crisis. World's End Close is where Stevie Fisher and her friend Ray live. Life is pretty dull according to Stevie but the one night she finds a body in the garden shed. Actually it is not a body, it is a young girl. Her name is Anna and she tells Stevie and Ray that she is on the run. That someone is trying to poison her.
There are lots of threads in this story:
Stevie's dad has recently died and by accident Stevie finds a letter written by her dad which she is supposed to read when she is older. In the letter dad reveals the terrible truth about the nuclear testing in the Pacific.
Ray is keen to visit America to meet his cousin and talk about Martin Luther King and African American rights. Ray's mum is English and his dad is African American.
Ray and Stevie want to keep Anna safe. They want to protect her but there seems to be so much she is not telling them.
Near World's End Close there is an army installation and right now, even though the war is over, there seems to be a lot of activity, secret activity going on there.
"Today, inside the fence, there were twenty or more people walking about. They were all wearing overalls and measuring distances and writing things on clipboards. ... In the distance, near the runway's end, the doors stood open on a row of aircraft hangers. We were too far away to see what was inside, but I could guess, and my heart thumped so hard I could feel it in my throat. American plans to drop American bombs on Russia. And if the Russians fought back, that would make the airbase here in Britain, just half a mile from where we lived, a target."
On the the cover you can see Stevie, Ray and Anna in a World War II pillbox. A pillbox is a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons. It is in effect a trench firing step, hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades, and raised to improve the field of fire. (Wikipedia) After all these years since the war it is over grown with grasses and plants and is very well camouflaged.
So now the race is on to find the truth about Anna, to save her from an unknown enemy and also to hope America and Russia can resolve their differences. See what I mean about issues big and small.
In this video Emma talks about her book. This video 9 mins will give you some good background about the historical setting used in this book. It is very clear Emma Carroll has done an enormous amount of research for this book and then she has cleverly woven in all the global story strands. Here is a BookBag review. You can read more plot details here.
Publisher blurb: 1962, London during the Cuban Missile Crisis. What would you do if there was a real possibility that the world might end? Ray, aware of his parents' building worry, decides to take matters into his own hands. He builds a shelter in the woods behind his house in the hope that he never has to use it. Only to discover that someone else needs it more than he does. An American girl, reported missing, has turned up there... Why is she hiding? And with neighbour turning against neighbour, will Ray be willing to help her? Set over the six days when the Cuban Missile Crisis became public knowledge, this (is a) tense, (and) clever thriller.
Read my previous posts featuring books by Emma Carroll:
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