53 pages • 1 hour read
This section contains the poems “The Envelope,” “The Reasons Why,” “Escape,” “The New World,” “A Sea Change,” “Liver Again,” and “Something New.”
Ken Sparks opens a letter from the King of England and reads that he will be sent to Canada. Ken’s parents explain that the Germans are advancing toward England, and many parents applied to have their children sent overseas on a ship to be out of danger. Ken was selected from among thousands of applicants. His three-year-old sister, Margaret, is too young to go because only children aged five through 15 are accepted. Ken, at age 13, will be one of the older children. However, he can’t tell his friends that he will be leaving: “Loose lips sink ships” (5).
Ken runs out of the house and releases his feelings of anger by lighting some fireworks from his secret stash. His mother died shortly after Ken was born, and he blames himself for her death because a doctor told her she should not have children. Ken’s father married the nanny, Nora, who is now Ken’s stepmother. Ken believes she is trying to get rid of him by sending him away. He resolves not to go but then thinks of the fresh start and adventure that North America could offer him. When Ken returns home, the family has roly-poly—liver rolled in pastry—for dinner. The war means that food is in short supply, and everyone lives on rations. Before Ken’s trip, his stepmother takes him to a secondhand store to buy a new coat. He looks grown up when he tries on the gray wool coat, and as he leaves the shop, he thinks the coat must be the nicest thing he’s ever owned.
This section contains the poem “It Begins.”
September, the month of Ken’s departure, comes quickly, and with it comes German planes. Ken’s family huddles under the table in their home and listens to explosions all through the night.
This section contains the poems, “Fallout,” “S is for Shelter,” and “Sounds of Hate.”
In the morning, Ken and his family learn that hundreds of tons of bombs were dropped on London the previous night. Ken goes to London with his father and sees the damage of buildings reduced to rubble, smoke, and fires. Ken finds a piece of shrapnel and puts it in his pocket as a reminder of how thankful he is to be alive. That night, air raid sirens sound again, and this time, Ken’s family has time to get to the brick shelter near their home. They join their neighbors in the cramped, stuffy building and listen once again to the bombs falling. Shortly after the all-clear sounds, the sirens ring out again, and they must remain at the shelter.
This section contains the poems “Packing,” “You Can Always Tell a German Plane,” and “Another Sleepless Night.”
When packing for his trip aboard the ship, Ken must follow a specific list. He must bring his gas mask and only basic clothing and shoes. He cannot even bring books other than a Bible. On the third night of bombing, Ken notices that the German planes make a different sound than English planes. He loves learning about the different types of planes in the war. Since Germany declared war on England a year ago, Ken has taken up a hobby of studying planes. Ken and his family spend another night in the cramped shelter, wondering what the damage will be in the morning. By now, Ken is ready for tomorrow’s departure to Canada, where there are no bombs or wars. However, he worries about his family enduring this constant siege each night.
This section contains the poems “I’m Off,” “At the Station,” “Wave Me Goodbye, “A Shout,” “Goodbye London,” “We Are Wrong About the Bombs,” “The Orphanage,” and “Crying in the Night.”
Ken’s stepmother takes him to the train station because his father can’t get away from his new job as a postman. Many families are at the station saying goodbye to their sons and daughters, but Ken regrets that no groups are there to comfort him or wish him well. He wishes his stepmother loved him enough to miss him; she doesn’t cry or hug him. Instead, she only waves goodbye and warns him not to lose his new coat. Escorts check in Ken and the other children as they board the train, and Ken spots his friend Terry Holmes from his neighborhood. Terry is 10 years old, but Ken considers him a close friend and envies his artistic ability to draw ships. Terry is excited to sail in the Atlantic and sees the trip as an adventure, bolstering Ken’s spirits. As the train pulls away, Ken thinks of all the things he will miss: his sister Margaret, his dad, his house, and his school. Even so, he is glad to be finished with bombings and nights spent at the bomb shelter.
However, Ken soon realizes that he hasn’t escaped the bombs just yet. The train stops, and the escorts tell the children to run to a nearby shelter as air raid sirens sound. The train makes several stops like this throughout the journey until receiving the “all-clear sounds.” The train eventually pulls into Liverpool, and the children take a bus to an orphanage. They meet the adults escorting them and wait in line to be checked in. Ken notices a young boy, John Snoad, crying in the line and feels sorry for him. All the boys are instructed to stuff a mat with straw to use as a bed, and it’s a rough night for the boys who are packed together on the floor. John sleeps next to Ken and wakes up in the night crying, missing home. Ken does his best to cheer John, telling him they are adventurers and sailors.
This section contains the poems “Making Friends,” “Shrapnel,” “The Shy Kid,” “Runaways,” “Sanctuary,” and “Rude Awakening.”
In the morning, Ken meets a boy named Derek and his younger brother, Alan. He also meets Billy, who has a younger brother, Peter, to look after as well. Both the younger boys are just five years old, so it’s up to Billy and Derek to look after their brothers. The boys find more shrapnel while playing outside at the orphanage, and they collect a few pieces in their pockets. Ken then meets a shy boy named Paul. Shortly after, little Alan and Peter go missing, and their older brothers worry. Ken, Paul, and Terry help Derek and Billy search. They eventually find the young boys beneath a willow tree, listening to one of the female escorts tell a story. The boys join them, and Ken feels safe for the first time in a while as he listens to the story and drifts off to sleep. He wakes to the sound of a siren, and once again, the boys must take shelter and spend the night listening to falling bombs.
The novel opens in 1940, a year into World War II. Protagonist Ken Sparks lives with his father, stepmother, and younger sister Margaret in Wembley, England, just outside of London. The novel is narrated from Ken’s first person limited point of view and written in free verse. Thirteen-year-old Ken is somewhat discontented with his life. He feels unwanted by his stepmother, and the difficulties of life during the war weigh on him. Although he initially resists the idea of leaving for Canada, he soon changes his mind once he recognizes the adventure and allure of escaping to North America on a ship. Even so, when it comes time for Ken to leave, his emotions are mixed; he will miss his family and friends, but he won’t miss the air raids, shelters, or parental discipline of life at home. Hood captures Ken’s feelings about escaping from England with figurative language: “I feel like a thief, / stealing away, / making off with my life” (36). The word choice “thief” has negative connotations, and the simile suggests that Ken does not feel deserving of this opportunity. As a result, he feels both lucky and guilty for getting to leave while so many others cannot.
While Ken is still living at home, Hood highlights the strained Sparks family dynamic. Ken misses his birth mother, who died when he was a baby. He feels like his stepmother never embraced him as her own son. Hood uses the simile of “hand-me-down” clothing to depict the way Ken feels his stepmother thinks of him: “I feel like a hand-me-down / my stepmum doesn’t want, / so she’ll donate me to a good cause” (8). Although he becomes excited to leave for Canada, he believes that his stepmother is using safety as an excuse to send him away, or “donate” him. Ironically, despite Ken’s feelings, his stepmother provides him with a fine new coat in preparation for his voyage. Ken’s coat is symbolic of his coming-of-age transformation and connects him to his family after he departs. At the train station with his stepmother, Ken feels alone. He compares himself to the other children saying goodbye to their families, noticing that he doesn’t have a group of loving family members to see him off. Ken’s stepmother shows no warmth or tenderness toward him as they say goodbye: “Be good and make us proud. / And whatever you do, don’t lose that coat!” (14). This scene characterizes Nora Sparks as emotionally cold and withholding, which Ken internalizes. Despite the strained relationship with his stepmother, Ken still worries about his family when he leaves. He recognizes that by staying, they must withstand the constant German attacks and live in what is becoming a war zone.
Hood introduces a key theme and motif in the opening chapters. A recurring motif is stories, and the novel quickly establishes Ken’s love of stories. He loves to read about adventures and views books as an escape from the realities of his life. Ken soon comes to see that the voyage to Canada will be a real-life escape from his current life; he views the journey as an adventure and a way to start his own story. Through Ken, Hood develops the theme of Coming of Age in Times of Crisis. Ken’s father says that the journey will help Ken learn to make his own way in the world, and Ken eventually embraces this idea. Until now, Ken has lived under the care and discipline of his parents, but the journey to Canada offers opportunities for independence, decision-making, and self-reliance.
Hood also develops the novel’s wartime setting in these chapters while Ken is still living at home to show what daily life was like during World War II. Food supplies are limited, so everyone in Ken’s community must live on rations, evidenced by the meal of liver that Ken’s stepmother prepares. Furthermore, no one gets to buy new toys or clothing; this makes Ken’s secondhand coat particularly special to him. He hasn’t had a new article of clothing for a long time, especially not one of such quality and expense. Hood also describes the air raid sirens and the necessity of taking shelter with one’s neighbors in designated buildings made to withstand bombings. Hood provides sensory descriptions to capture the smells and conditions of the shelters and the sounds of the air raid sirens. Her use of alliteration makes descriptions stand out, such as when she describes the shelter as “Spooky, stinking, suffocating” (22). This imagery creates a foreboding mood.
Moreover, Hood uses a variety of poetic forms to illustrate the sensations she describes. For example, the arrangement of the text that describes the feeling of Ken’s stomach dropping during the bombing mirrors this sensation, with the lines dropping down after each word: “My stomach / drops / with / each / one” (23). Similarly, she uses the text’s positioning to create dramatic pauses, or to slow down the reader’s pace in certain sections of imagery to draw the reader’s attention. For instance, she captures Ken’s fear by describing his dripping sweat, emphasizing the slow repetition of the drips with her use of poetic form: “cold sweat / drip- / drip- / dripping / down / our / backs” (35). Through poetic devices and descriptions of Ken’s life in England, Hood provides the reader with a picture of wartime life in the 1940s.
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