With World War II looming, four young people sit on a train waiting to be evacuated to a safer place...but they don't want to go. They climb out of the carriage window and head back to Greenwich, forming an unlikely friendship.

They spend their days trying to be useful. Laurence is building a secret machine. Gemmy searches bombed-out homes for things of value - only to find an adorable mutt she can't even give away. Franklin wants to join the Fire Service, although it means lying about his age. Olive looks after her father, who is broken by the deaths of his fellow firefighters. And together, the four roam the streets of London, discovering their resilience amongst the secrets of the city.

But as the Blitz unleashes a barrage of bombs on London, turning the sky ragged with flame, can the friends keep each other safe and survive?

Geraldine McCaughrean is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the CILIP Carnegie Medal twice: first in 1988 with A Pack of Lies and again in 2018 with Where the World Ends. She's won the IBW Book Award 2018, the Whitbread Children's Book Award three times, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award four times, the prestigious U.S. Printz Award and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. Geraldine lives in Berkshire with her husband John and the lingering shades of all those characters she has invented in her books.

The activity pack includes stickers, book club-style questions to ponder and a welcome note from Geraldine McCaughrean. There's a recipe for a wartime rationing cake and a word puzzle inspired by wartime slogans to solve, alongside jokes and further reading recommendations.

Activity packs are a handy A5 size and printed on uncoated paper which is fully recyclable.

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Our packs are wrapped in a simple paper sleeve and sent out in a cardboard book wrap – we would be so grateful if you could recycle both.

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We are a monthly book subscription by post for children aged 5 to 14, focused on helping families discover new and different chapter books.

This title was sent to subscribers in the Macaw reading group, aged roughly 12 to 14, who need books that feel grown-up but aren’t quite ready for all young adult books.