Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Deftly interweaving humor and heart, McKay crafts an intricate novel exploring the overlapping realms of family, friendship, and romantic love in early-20th-century England. Since clever Clarry's mother died soon after she was born, Clarry and her disgruntled older brother, Peter, have lived with their aloof, dour father, who believes that girls don't deserve education and criticizes Peter for sharing his books with his sister. Sent to boarding school against his will, Peter befriends Simon, a sensitive loner who likewise struggles to discover where he belongs. As she did in her books starring the eccentric Casson family and irrepressible Binny, the author introduces credible, memorable characters whom readers will readily embrace. The novel's most dazzling personalities, though, belong to Simon's impulsive and big-hearted sister, Vanessa, who nurses injured soldiers after WWI breaks out, and Clarry and Peter's charismatic cousin, Rupert, who ships out to France with the British army and is wounded at the front. The characters' intricate relationships and deep bonds give unusual emotional ballast to the story, which provides a poignant portrait of an era and a war "where absolutely nothing made sense" and of teens catapulted prematurely into adulthood. Ages 10-14. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* While most writers fill in their main character's backstory in a few paragraphs, this unusual novel begins when Clarry is born, in 1902, and follows her for more than 20 years. She and her older brother, Peter, grow up in a somewhat affluent, rather grim London household, but each year their emotionally distant father sends them off to Cornwell to spend a gloriously happy summer of freedom with their grandparents and their cousin Rupert. Midway through the book, WWI begins and their lives (Rupert's in the trenches in France, and his cousins' and their friends' in England) are increasingly shaped by forces beyond their control. The characters are sharply delineated by their varied personalities, inclinations, and experiences. Their actions, though occasionally unexpected, seem inevitable in retrospect. McKay brings the period settings to life with vivid details, particularly when the war brings horrors to France and hardships to the home front. Flashbacks to the boys' pivotal boarding school days fill the gaps in their stories, but the focus always returns to Clarry, her steadfast relationships, and her gradually widening world. Though love, pain, and loss shape this emotionally resonant story of coming of age in turbulent times, the ending is quietly hopeful and wholly satisfying.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2018 Booklist
Horn Book Review
In Binny in Secret (rev. 7/15), McKay introduced us to Clarry, her brother Peter, and their beloved cousin Rupert in a subplot set during World War I in London. Here, McKay gives us the full story of these three: stubborn, grumpy Peter; kind, charismatic Rupert; and especially Clarry, adoring of the boys and, as a girl, destined to stay home and care for her selfish, neglectful father. As the three grow up, Peter is sent to boarding school; Rupert enlists in the army; and Clarry defies her fathers apathy and earns a place in an academically rigorous girls high school. Then Rupert is declared missing, presumed dead, and Clarry sets off to find him. This is a story both broad and deep, sketching the scope of the Western Front (shaped like a ravenous, expectant smile. A greedy, unreasonable smile, considering how very, very well it was fed) but drawing us closely into Clarrys heart and mind as she emerges valiantly into adulthood. McKays genius as a writer is everywhere apparent: she conveys complex nuances of character with a light hand, moving gracefully from the hilarious to the heart-breaking; she paints scenes with spare, lucid detail (for example, a blackbird turns over dead leaves like someone flicking through a book to find the illustrations). Buoyant with the warmth of family love and friendship, and especially with McKays witty, incisive style, this exceptional novel invitesand amply rewardsre-reading. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Book Review
Steadfast love and friendship stand proof against the changes and challenges of war for a group of Edwardian-era children.The effects of the Great War still resonate, at least for British novelists, and here McKay adds to the crowded shelves with a tale featuring an ensemble cast of siblings, relatives, and school friends (many previously met through flashbacks in Binny in Secret, 2015) growing up in Plymouth and summering in Cornwall before, during, and (for survivors) after. At the center of the cast is Clarissa "Clarry" Penrose, ignored by her widowed father, raised by housekeepers along with her fretful, saturnine older brother, Peter, but gifted with both a bright intellect and a happy, affectionate disposition. Both serve her in good stead through expanding self-expectations as a girl and then woman while others, notably dashing yet "recklessly kind" older cousin Rupert, enter the story and then go off to war. The author shifts among multiple points of view to explore developing relationships from different angles and to relate incidents along the curved front's "monstrous smile" in a frank but dispassionate way that leaves readers free to respond as they will. She carries the story several years beyond the war's end to show happy endings for nearly everyone and, for Clarry, a surprise reunion guaranteed to leave nary a dry eye in the house. As McKay fans can rightly expect, each character (all are white) displays an individually distinct mix of temperament, outlook, abilities, and foibles, but all, even the minor ones, are fundamentally decent andthough sometimes with some effortlovable. Winning as ever, with an overall Little Princess feel reminiscent of McKay's own sequel to that classic, Wishing for Tomorrow (2010). (Historical fiction. 11-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.