Until the Road Ends

Phil Earle's Until the Road Ends is a moving World War Two story for 11 year olds about a scruffy stray who finally finds a girl worth trusting.

What happens

Beau has lived on the streets of South London for years. He doesn't trust humans (the grown-up ones are the worst, in his experience). Then one day he's too hungry to move out of the way of a lorry, and a girl called Peggy drags him into the gutter just in time.

She takes him home and calls him Beau. Why? Because he's a long way short of beautiful! Her brother Wilf isn't impressed, and neither is Wilf's hulking cat, Mabel.

A lot of the story is seen through Beau's eyes, and the animals talk to each other. Mabel lays down the law on his very first night (there's only one top dog in this house, and it's her). Beau gets his own back by pretending to be fast asleep when the family come running. Next door lives Bomber, a racing pigeon who's VERY proud of his name, although it isn't for the reason Beau guesses.

It's a lovely, noisy home to land in. There are big belly laughs round the wireless and games of hide and seek in the street, where Beau sniffs out every boy who swore a girl would never find him. But Peggy's dad has a terrible cough, and the news is full of Hitler.

As war gets closer, Peggy and Wilf are told they're being sent to Aunt Sylvie, who lives next door to a lighthouse. She can't take the pets. Then a government booklet about animals turns up.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

That booklet suggests having pets put down, and Beau sees its drawings of a cow and a sheep with rifle sights on their heads. Peggy doesn't soften it either. This all happens early on, and a child who's recently lost a pet, or who finds harm to animals very upsetting, may find those chapters hard going.

If your reader is ready for that, there's a huge amount of love in here. Peggy fights for Beau as if he's family, because to her he is. It's the third of Phil Earle's wartime animal stories, and the opening chapters bring in a whole new family and a whole new dog.

What to read next

If they want another London family facing that same booklet, try While the Storm Rages. Noah has promised his dad he'll keep their dog Winn safe, and he means every word.