Why a Booktrail?
WW2: The poignant story of two small children evacuated to Canada during the war
The Sky is Falling
What you need to know before your trail
1940s England – Everyone fears the country is about to be invaded by Hitler. Norah is only little but she knows something is wrong – she listens to her parents talking in hushed but anxious tones and she can’t help but worry more. But worse is to come for her parents soon announced that they are both being sent away, to safety, to Canada. That huge country so far away, an ocean apart from little England now. Her parents are keen to tell her that they are going there to be lived with a rich woman.
But life in Canada does not start well – the rich woman who takes them in seems to prefer Gavin to her, the children at school taunt her, and as the news from England becomes worse, she longs for home.
As Norah begins to make friends, she discovers a surprising responsibility that helps her to accept her new country.
Travel Guide
Romney Marsh
The children play innocently and happily and even have a book called A Young Spotters Guide to Allied And German Aircrafit but Tom and Norah are now such experts that they no longer need it. They also now have a leaflet from the government which has been sent to everyone “If the Invader Comes”.
The land levels off ..”like the edge of a table as it dropped to Romney Marsh. Beyond that was the channel and from across the channel the Germans came…
Canada – Toronto
Canada did receive many children like Gavin and Norah in the novel and they would stay with host families until after the duration of the war. Imagine how it must have felt to have been so young and then separated from your parents and everything you’ve ever know. War must have been such a strange concept to everyone but to children – almost impossible to imagine.
The title of The Sky is Falling is a reference to the novel Chicken Licken. Early in the novel, Norah and Gavin hear the story of The Sky is Falling (Chicken Little), about a chicken who believed the sky was falling. A young evacuee thought that this was what was happening in England.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Sky is Falling
Author/Guide Kit Pearson Destination: Romney Marsh, Toronto Departure Time: WW2
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