Cuckoo Summer

Product Information

Apart from the gripping plot, one of the best things about this book is its sense of time and place - it makes a real effort to capture the language, traditions and rhythms of a lakeside farm during the Second World War. Author of eight novels, including The Season Ticket, Give Us This Day and Mr McCool, Jonathan’s work has been filmed, staged and Radio 4 serialised. The unfolding of Sally’s story and the close friendship between these children, and the silent Simon is a pleasure.

Tommy and his evacuee friend Sally find an injured German airman close to their home in the Lake District. This results in a chain of events that expose the children to danger and uncover secrets about Sally’s past.Into this world his new friend Sally, an evacuee who lives on the neighbouring farm, appears like a breath of fresh air, full of jokes, chat and bravado, she is the type of child that others follow. Cuckoo Summer is a perfect book to share alongside WWII topics, and it will be loved by any child looking for an immersive story of adventure and friendship. Then a German plane is brought down over the village and the navigator is not there and must have bailed out. Initially, the plot appears straightforward, but it is the relationship between Tommy and Sally which holds the magic to this story.

As well as being an important story, Cuckoo Summer is an ideal landscape for me; it’s a farm, it’s a community and it’s full of meadows and fells. It kept me interested from the first page to the last, and even gave a little emotional kick at the end. At one point, the children’s unkind teacher, Miss Gently rattles through the timetables, beating her long ruler like ‘an auctioneer watching farmers at a cattle sale. They soon come to realise that reporting this discovery might not be the wisest idea in the midst of 1940 and instead they try to keep him hidden. This experience has been fantastic primarily for the children, the school and also for me (professionally).

They hide him, from the Home Guard, the leader of whom is a man who fought in WW1, and has become bitter and twisted. Your selection was perfect for our children and what really made the difference was your ability to engage with each child, discuss their interests and help them to choose a suitable book based on your extensive knowledge of the books you were selling. Sally’s sponsor, Mr Scarcross, a gruff bully, was a soldier who fought in World War 1 and he and the local Home Guard are intent on finding the missing navigator.