A Place to Hang the Moon

What a read! This was phenomenal! It got a big book hug when I finished, & it left me with all the happy feels. I was 12% through this when I picked it up yesterday-then I finished the rest in 2 separate sittings yesterday. I didn’t want to put it down. These kids are each amazing in their own right. I loved the sibling dynamic in this story. As the oldest, William has had so much on his shoulders that no 12 year old should have to bear. My heart ached for all of them, but especially him. Mrs. Müller has my heart. What a classy, loving, amazing woman. My heart broke for her too for so many reasons. I absolutely loved that she was a librarian, & loved all of the cozy library scenes. I felt like I was curled up w/a book right along side them. This had amazing characters obviously lol, amazing historical detailing, a great plot, great character development, & amazing writing. This feels like an instant classic. I can see people 100 years from now still reading & talking about this like A Little Princess is. It FEELS like a loved classic already. Watching these kids go through what they do, how the story develops, & the ending-all done in such a way, & built up perfectly in a such a way, that you just become so invested & in love w/these characters & story. I’ve never rolled my eyes so hard as I did when a certain character worries if she will still be able to get French perfume when France falls to the Germans. Lol Even stuff like that added so much to the story. Ignorant people like that & the horrible people we encounter in the book really existed-not these literal people, but people LIKE them. Sad. These frightened kids evacuating & leaving their family & their homes..the way some people treated them & the things they said-makes me so angry. Or the ones that only cared about the payment they got for taking in evacuees. Ugh! The Ratting broke my heart in a million pieces-what a scene. Such a powerful 1 at that. I also love that the question is asked why so many authors write orphan stories, because I’ve always wondered too lol not that I’m complaining-they seem to be some of my favorites. There are many characters that could be seen as the “villains” to the story, but I don’t think you could have a story including WWII & not say Hitler is the real villain. Still infuriates me how some people were treated for simply being attached in some way to someone who happened to be German(not Nazi, just German), or were German but hadn’t been there or lived there in ages. Or even if they were from a country that fell to Germany they were treated like they were Nazis themselves. Ignorant & absurd! All of those poor people all affected by the war in horrible ways, & all so many different ways. From the horrific Holocaust itself all the way down to evacuated children, & all of the others in between the two. Anyway, the ending chapters til the end itself gave me such a warm happy feeling, I never wanted the book to end. I can’t recommend this enough. I think it hung the moon! I need more from this author! Absolutely beautiful cover by Jane Newland too! Stunning!💜

We read this as a family read aloud and loved it! It not only held the attention of my 9 and 7 year old, but I very much enjoyed it as well. The book is beautifully written, with rich vocabulary, and navigates the tragedies and hardships of WWII in a way that is educational and truthful, but also somehow heartwarming. We will definitely be reading more from this author!

I enjoyed every minute of this audiobook, even the sad and angry places. Author Kate Albus’ written words and Polly Lee‘s narration perfectly placed me right there in the English countryside as the setting for this touching story. Three children, twice orphaned, and now evacuated from London with hundreds of other school children to live with strangers on farms in order to keep them safe from the Nazi bombings in London. William, Edmund and Anna hope to find a “forever family” who will eventually adopt them. But the pickings are mighty slim among those willing to take in and foster all three together. So, the children go from billet to billet (home to home), enduring nastiness, prejudice, and mistreatments, even though they are the most polite and willing of children. There is a secret that they must not tell anyone until they find that “for sure” family willing to do more than foster them. The solicitor in London advises them to tell no one about the estate they will eventually inherit for fear some might take them, out of greed. It’s a preposterous plan to find someone who will say “they hang the moon” and truly love them, but… well…it might just take shape in their situation when they are placed with a “most unsuitable” person because there is no one else. This is a truly sweet and feel-good story, that also shows the horrendous things that England endured in World War II, never giving up, and protecting the most precious of their assets. Super well-written and narrated.

There has been a burst of children's fiction about this particular moment in British history. This one is my favorite. I love that all three children are readers. The author has so many fantastic quotes about libraries, books, and readers. There is some violence (children fighting bullies, an adult hitting a child). I felt like it was a reasonable amount and helped to demonstrate the unsuitability of the potential families. My only complaint is that the girl was 9 years old, yet she acted more like a five year old (lots of crying, climbing up on her brother's lap).

We are absolutely loving this book. We’re about half way through and my kids (12, 9, 7, 4) are completely delighted with it. The one criticism I have is that it really needed a British editor. It’s not too bad but so far we’ve had ‘custard cream cookies’, ‘fall’ (instead of autumn) and ‘diapers’. None of which a Brit would say. And it’s not just that it’s written for an American readership, we even had one of the British children using the word diaper in a sentence in the last chapter. It just jars and could have been easily fixed. So that’s a shame but the story more than makes up for these minor quibbles I have. It really is a lovely book. Very well written and my kids are so emotionally engaged with the children in the story.

This is a warm story of three children yearning for a home filled with love. Kate is a beautiful storyteller. The book is like a journey, full of winding roads until you reach the happily ever after in the end. The strong love and sense of responsibility the three siblings shared with each other fueled my page turning and I was engrossed from start to finish. Down-to-earth, well written characters - I loved Kate’s descriptions. She painted a beautiful picture. Another delightful read, it needs to be on every single bookshelf. This is a gem.

This story has everything we love! The characters are flawed but endearing. The obstacles they face are daunting but not insurmountable. They lessons the characters learned are great lessons for all of us. Some very touching, poignant moments but also moments of levity. The setting of World War II touched on some hard things people endured with age-appropriate perfection. It led to many interesting discussions in our family. We love that this story features loving siblings who look out for each other. Also, as book lovers, we appreciated the many references to beloved stories and we could relate to the characters attachments to books. This book is definitely in our family's top reads of this year.

Apesar de ter demorado muito para chegar, estava em perfeito estado.

Usually these books are more for women, not this one. I loved it and my boys did too