Recommendations from our site
When the Japanese invade Malaya in World War Two, Nisha escapes to her paternal grandmother’s home on an English island. The novel is interspersed with entries from Nisha’s own journal, sunny memories of eating fresh fruit and running barefoot, and awful ones of planes diving from the sky and the rattle of machine guns firing on civilians. At first Nisha thinks her grandmother’s lack of sympathy is because she disapproves of Nisha’s Indian mother, but gradually she comes to understand that there is something else behind her grandmother’s coldness. An evocative story of finding courage and carrying on when life is tough, as well as a gentle ghost story.
Ages 9-12
Our most recommended books
-
Inventors: Incredible Stories of the World's Most Ingenious Inventions
by Robert Winston & Jessamy Hawke (illustrator) -
Harry Potter: the Complete Series
by J.K. Rowling -
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll -
Carrie's War
Nina Bawden, Alan Marks (illustrator) -
How Was That Built? The Stories Behind Awesome Structures
Roma Agrawal, Katie Hickey (illustrator) -
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett