Letters from the Lighthouse: ‘THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION’ Guardian: 1

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The book does not feature heavy setting descriptions. Instead, Emma Carroll increases her use of descriptive language at key points, heightening the impact on the reader. An example of this comes early in the book, when an air raid hits London. Her sudden escalation of setting at that particular moment, paints a vivid, gritty picture of life in London during WWII, making the overall scene resonate in a much deeper, more meaningful way. If your middle grade kids (ages 8-12) haven't discovered Emma Carroll yet, then they're missing out., Irish Times She discovers that secret meetings are taking place at night in an old boathouse and that the harbor has been taken over by a group of strangers. Although she is sometimes scared, Molly is determined to protect Pearl and discovers that the lighthouse holds a long-buried secret that could change her life forever. Details of Letters from the Lighthouse Book Book Along the way she meets a variety of both friendly and unpleasant characters and not all of them are what they seem.

After Suki's disappearance, Olive's mother fears for her children's safety and evacuates them to Devon where they stay in a lighthouse. Even though Olive is in Devon, she is determined to find out what really happened to her sister. Olive is still convinced that she is still alive somewhere.

LoveReading4Kids Says

The story is told from the perspective of an evacuee named Olive. A main focus of the story is the growing friendship between Olive and a Jewish refugee named Esther. At first, Olive is unsure about Esther as she is different to the other children and comes across as cold and uninviting. However, as Olive listens to Esther talk more about her lived experiences as a Jew in Austria and then as a refugee in England, Olive starts to see how she initially misunderstood Esther and begins to appreciate how brave and courageous she is. I think we can learn a lot from this friendship as it shows us that prejudice and discrimination can be overcome by empathy and mutual understanding. The book is based on a family whose father a pilot was losted in the fighting. We meet three siblings during an air raid in London and follow Olive and her brother Cliff on the hunt for the truth to their sister going missing.

Carroll was born in Oxfordshire, England, and lives in Dorset with her family. She is a graduate of the University of East Anglia and earned her master’s degree from Bath Spa University. Before becoming an author full-time she worked as a digital copywriter, teacher, and librarian. Emma Carroll is said to be the queen of middle grade historical fiction. One book down and a handful more to go, and I���m already agreeing with this statement! I really liked this book because it was full of mysteries. But the only thing I didn't like about it was that when all the exciting bits ended there wasn't much happening for 3 or 4 paragraphs. My favourite character was Sukie because she really wants to help with this plan to save people, who live in other countries where the war is really bad. The other characters who are in the book are: Olive, Cliff, Ephraim, Pixie (the dog),Mum and Gloria. I thought the book showed the history of the war very well but I think it is more suitable for older children because as we know the war was a difficult time and a lot of people died. This showed me what it was like in the war. My favourite part was when they found a suitcase from one of the people that her sister was trying to save. The book was quite grabbing for me and I would definitely recommend this book to other people who like history like me.

'The lighthouse - that word, that image - changed everything.'

February, 1941. After months of bombing raids in London, twelve-year-old Olive Bradshaw and her little brother Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast. The only person with two spare beds is Mr Ephraim, the local lighthouse keeper. But he's not used to company and he certainly doesn't want any evacuees. The second world war turns schoolgirl Olive’s life in London inside out. Her father is shot down over France, her glamorous older sister, Sukie, goes missing during an air raid, and Olive is evacuated with her younger brother, Cliff, to Devon.

Scrisori din far” este o istorie de viață de care te îndrăgostești încă de la prima pagină și pe care ajungi să o porți în suflet mult timp după ce închizi ultima filă. Autoarea creează o adevărată feerie de poveste, desprinsă din timpuri în care camaraderia și respectul pentru om, indiferent de rasă, naționalitate și religie era încă o virtute în sine. Ea aduce în prim-plan personaje diverse, cu accentul pus pe o copilă, care învață pe propria sa piele ce înseamnă toleranța și într-ajutorarea celor din jur, aflați în necaz. Emma Caroll ne poartă pașii până în anul 1941, când Londra pare a fi în flăcări, căci nemții aruncă peste ea bombe peste bombe. Tocmai de aceea, părinții își trimit copiii singuri, în zonele rurale, pentru a îi salva un pic de la toată trauma pe care o provoacă un război de o asemenea amploare. Romanul acesta, atât de potrivit pentru copii și adolescenți pentru a afla ce a însemnat cel de Al Doilea Război Mondial și ce suferințe a provocat, este unul plin de aventură, de mister întreținut prin intermediul unor coduri secrete, dar și unul despre a fi om chiar și în timpuri grele, despre umanitate, comunitate, acceptare, toleranță, iubire de aproape, prietenie, compasiune, creare de legături născute din suferințe mari și bunătate arătată tuturor, indiferent dacă sunt prieteni sau dușmani. Tocmai prin acest mesaj și această uriașă lecție de viață încântă sufletele cititorilor săi autoarea:The crisp prose and pacey plot make this novel a joy to read. The setting of Budmouth, a coastal Devon village dominated by a lighthouse, lends atmosphere and plenty of scope for exciting adventures. The book had a happy ending, despite the difficult experiences the characters had endured and if I could, I would give this book a five star review. It is really well written. I loved how Emma Carroll told true events in history but made them fictional.

I enjoyed this book because it is set in the war and it gives you the feel of what it was like to be in it. My favourite character was Olive because she had a lot of courage and she did things for other people that needed help. She was always looking after her little brother Cliff even though it was tough. When I had read this book, it made me want to read lots more like it because it made you feel as if you were one of the characters. This book made me feel like I wanted to research the war and find out the little things that I did not realise about it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes lighthouses and coded messages.Emma Carroll clearly put a lot of research into writing Letters from the Lighthouse. It lends itself very well to teaching a WWII topic to a class, as the prolific use of wartime terminology and speech does a fantastic job of educating the reader on specific aspects of the war. I read through the book beforehand and then timed my teaching to coincide with the book so that my children were able to better visualise what I was teaching them. Class Comments Letters from the Lighthouse starts off with relatively few characters, but the number increases steadily as the book progresses, resulting in quite a few by the end. Each character feels necessary, and it’s clear that Emma Carroll has put a lot of thought into what each one can bring to the story. This asymmetric character structure gives the story room to delve into the deep-rooted prejudices often faced by refugees, as seen through the eyes of open-minded children. By shining a spotlight on supplementary characters’ preconceptions and showing their progression towards change and acceptance, my class were able to connect with the injustices faced by refugees, both in the past and the present, on a far deeper level. Told through letters that Molly writes to her mother and siblings, the novel follows Molly’s journey as she helps a young evacuee, Pearl, search for her missing father and navigate the secrets of the lighthouse. Along the way, Molly unravels a host of mysterious stories surrounding her new home on the coast. I did enjoy this book because I like the characters in the story. I thought that the story was interesting and that the history in the book was believable. I found the history about World War II interesting and it encouraged me to try to find out more.