WOW Review: Volume XVII, Issue 2 • Page 9 of 9 • Worlds of Words

When the Sky Falls
Written by Phil Earle
Bloomsbury, 2022, 312 pp
ISBN: 9781547609307

In 1940s London, Joseph is headed into the city in the opposite direction of children fleeing into the countryside away from the regular bombings of the city during WWII. Twelve-year Joseph is angry–his mother has died, his father has left to fight in the war, and he believes that his grandmother does not want him. His anger grows as he faces bullying and struggles with severe dyslexia, making school a nightmare. He has been sent to live with a gruff elderly woman, Mrs. F., who is charged with the difficult task of caring for the remaining animals in the city zoo, including a volatile silverback gorilla named Adonis. Joseph discovers that Mrs. F. stands guard outside Adonis’s cage during the nightly bombings, prepared to shoot him if the bombs open his cage. Joseph takes over guarding the cage, uncertain if he could ever shoot Adonis. Sadness fills the book as Mrs. F. watches over the decaying zoo and violence and death exact a heavy toll in the city. At the same time, trust and a strong caring relationship build between Adonis and Joseph through their battles with anger and the pain of loss.

This book takes place during the Blitz, a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom that lasted for eight months, from September 7, 1940, through May 11, 1941. These massive air attacks began in London with systematic bombings for 56 days in a row, followed by a large daylight attack, and continued as a regular nightly bombing campaign. 10,000 civilians were killed with more than a million houses destroyed or damaged. The goal of demoralizing the British into surrender failed and little damage was done to the war economy. Communal and private shelters were built where people spent their nights, and many women and children were evacuated to the remote countryside. The book’s focus grew out of a story from a friend who told the author that his father had to sit outside the lion’s cage with his gun trained on the animal whenever the air-raid sirens sounded.

Gripping and emotionally devastating, the healing power of animal/human relationships shines through in this book, leaving readers with hope for Joseph’s future. Readers become deeply invested in Joseph’s pain and his growing relationship with Adonis. The book also effectively conveys what it was like to live through the Blitz in London. Although there are many WWII books, this middle-grade novel stands out because of the focus on animal/human relationships and the unique characters.

Other books could be paired to depict relationships between animals and humans during war contexts. In An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo (2013), Lizzie and Karl’s mother works in a local zoo in Dresden, Germany during WWII and brings home a baby elephant who is slated to be destroyed. Forced to flee, they take the baby elephant with them, both protecting and being protected by her. The Tortoise and the Soldier by Michael Foreman (2013) is based on a true story of a Royal Navy soldier in WWI who found the strength to survive through a friendship he formed with a tortoise. Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak (2013) won the Batchelder Award for this true story of an orphaned Syrian bear cub who was adopted by Polish soldiers during WWII and served as their mischievous mascot in Iran and Italy. While the Storm Rages by Phil Earle (2022) is about a boy whose father asks him to keep their dog safe, but then the government asks people to put their pets to sleep because of war responsibilities. Noah and two friends go on the run to save as many animals as possible.

Phil Earle is a British children’s author who worked as a drama therapist with abused adolescents in London, including working with many dyslexic children. He became a children’s bookseller and developed an obsession for young adult fiction and went on to work in several publishing companies. Phil lives in West Yorkshire, with his wife, five children, two dogs and a dragon called Baz. When the Sky Falls was named Book of the Year by the British Book Awards and was also named to the 2023 Outstanding International Book award list.

Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona

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