When the Sky Falls

When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle is a wartime story for 11 year olds about an angry boy and a gorilla he may have to protect.

What happens

Joseph arrives in a city in 1940 while other children are leaving for safety. His dad has gone to war. He's been sent to live with a woman called Mrs F and he's already decided he wants to go home.

Their first meeting doesn't go very well. Joseph tries to get away and Mrs F holds on. Neither of them seems particularly pleased about the arrangement.

She runs a zoo that's struggling to keep going. There Joseph gets to know a silverback called Adonis. He's an enormously powerful animal, but Joseph recognises something of his own loneliness in him.

The bombing makes that friendship frightening. If the cage breaks open during a raid, Joseph could be expected to shoot the animal he's grown to care about. That's a very big thing to ask of a child.

You get a strong feel for Joseph before he reaches the zoo. He's furious with everyone and ready to fight over almost anything. Then you hear how much he wants to go somewhere he's wanted (and how sure he is that he isn't).

If your reader likes getting to know a character who doesn't make it easy, there's plenty here to get stuck into. You can understand why Joseph is hurting and still wish he'd stop making things worse for himself. Mrs F has her own stubborn streak too.

It's worth knowing how serious the danger is. The threat to Adonis is part of the setup, alongside war and separation from family. If your child finds the possibility of an animal being killed very upsetting, this may be a difficult read.

For a reader who wants a story about caring for someone when everything around you feels unsafe, that difficult choice may be exactly what draws them in. The animal friendship comes with a lot to worry about.

What to read next

The Butterfly Lion offers another boy's bond with an unusual animal. It's in the library too, with a white lion and a promise that survives their separation. There is sadness in that story as well, so it isn't a carefree animal adventure either.