The Inkling Volume 2

4. ‘The Sky is Falling’ – Kit Pearson
I first read this book when I was twelve years old. Believe it or not, I was a
voracious reader as a child. My mum used to take me to the library every other
Saturday and I would spend ages searching for the perfect book to take home
and read. I was going through a phase of reading historical fiction when I
happened to stumble upon this book; I was instantly hooked.
The novel starts out in England during World War 2. Norah is a young English
girl, fascinated by collecting war-souvenirs and watching the dazzling aerial
attacks between England and Germany that take place in the sky above her
each night. Her parents, however, are less enthused. After a particularly heavy
night of bombing, they decide to send Norah and her younger brother, Gavin, to
Canada. The rest of the novel sees Norah and Gavin arrive in Canada to live in a
stately home in Toronto under the strict and watchful eye of a rich, elderly
woman who ends up preferring (and doting on) Gavin… much to Norah’s horror.
As time goes on, Norah longs for home and worries about the implications
growing up away from England has on Gavin, who, due to his young age,
assimilates much more easily into the Canadian way of life, forgetting his
English roots.
I don’t think I would have wanted to become a teacher of English or history
(which is what I originally studied in University) if it wasn’t for this book. It
brought the war to life for me, in a way that I could relate to as a young girl. It’s a
must-read if you are interested in what living in England, and later Canada,
would have been like during World War Two.