The Kingdom by the Sea
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Guaradian award winning novel about courage, friendship and war. Reissued into the Essential Modern Classic list.
When a bomb during an air raid destroys Harry's home and kills his family, he knows that he is all alone in the world and has only himself to rely on. Anxious that he will be sent to live with his fussy Cousin Elsie he goes on the run across the war-battered land of North East England, his only friend in his journey a stray dog that he meets on the beach. Will Harry ever find a place to call home again, or will he be on the run forever?
About the author
Robert Westall was born October 1929, in Tynemouth, England. His first book, The Machine Gunners, was published in 1975, for which he won the Carnegie Medal. Amongst many more prizes and accolades, he won the Carnegie for the second time in 1980, with The Scarecrows. He died in 1993.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harry is safe in the backyard shelter when German bombs flatten his family's house. Numb and disoriented, he evades the authorities and makes his way to the beach, where he is befriended by Don, a stray dog. Together the boy and his new companion leave town and travel up the coast toward the holy island of Lindisfarne. Along the way the pair comes in contact with several remarkably kind people, some equally cruel ones and a few genuine eccentrics. At odds with the otherwise genial storytelling are scenes in which a sadistic homosexual corporal attempts to molest Harry. Here the author perpetuates an ugly, misguided stereotype by implying that the corporal's brutal behavior is part and parcel of his sexual preference. This flaw aside, much of the novel pleasantly blends the period details and high adventure typical of Westall's other World War II novels. Ages 10-up.
