Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

a truly heartwarming novel giving us an insight into world war 1 and how it was for children without all the atrocities. I thought it was a childrens book initially but im 42 and thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend to everyone, old and young.

I found this to be a slow burner that I couldn't put down once I had started.

The characters are people you would genuinely love to know as three cousins that have different experiences of the first world war.

Brilliantly compelling, everyone should read this book at least once on their life.

Such a charming story about a girl called Clarry and her family of odds and ends, set around the period of WWI. I loved these characters so much and even though I would not wish Clarry's childhood upon anyone (the negligent part), I would love to have a bit of the life she had. I've always had a soft spot for children's stories like Anne of Green Gables, the Railway Children, the Little Princess, Heidi, the Secret Garden, and this story I feel is high up there with those classics!

I have been to Cornwall only once and fairly recently, but I can understand her love for it so completely! And also the love she has for her family and especially Rupert. That is a love I truly understand and it fills me with joy that there is a story with this kind of love in it.

Heart warming and made me smile with every word!

Oh my goodness. I loved this so much. I have had this on the tbr list for a while (and a copy in the NetGalley backlog) but hadn't got around to it until two authors I really like read it and loved it. And they were right. I cried a whole pocket pack of tissues - and it's just wonderful.

It's a beautiful story that reminded me in some ways of Noel Streatfeild, Nina Bawden and Elizabeth Jane Howard. And yes I know the latter is an adult author and this is a children's book, but I think the combination of those three gives you a bit of a sense of the feel of this. Just lovely.

This was also the book of the week featured review on my blog

McKay introduces her main characters in the third party dialogue of a fairy tale but it doesn't take long for the reader to feel personally immersed in their lives. You live Clarry's life with her and share her innocent approaches to life and the war and share Rupert's sometimes horrifying experiences at the Front.
Despite the fears and pain, there is also humour and hope in this story and you are left with the feeling of having enjoyed a really good book..

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Children's Books for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Well written book set around the First World War. Believable characters and good plot. Recommended .

A fantastic read, brilliantly written. This book might be aimed at older primary school children but I think this is such a hard audience to write for because if they don't enjoy reading something then they just won't bother. They would never finish a book just because they felt they should. Theyre very discerning. This is why I think this book is perfect for this age group. They would find it fast paced, interesting, well written and very timely, with it being the centenary of the first world war this year. I loved it and hope it does very well.

This is the story of Clarissa ‘Clarry’ Penrose and her brother Peter along with their cousin Rupert and friends Simon, his sister Vanessa and Violet. It starts in 1902 and finishes sometime after 1918.

This is a wonderful story it depicts life in the early 20th century for Clarry and Co. in language that brings an understanding of the times so clearly and without fuss. It will make you laugh, cry and it will carry you along with the delightful and the dreadful stories of childhood and youth. Clarry is wonderful and Hilary McKay has used her voice beautifully to bring her family, friends and the period vividly to life.

An outstanding book, exquisitely written which will engage the reader and draw them into the lives, the life and the times keeping them engrossed until the very end.

This book may be for 9-11 year olds but it is a book that anyone who reads will be captivated by. It is timely to be published on the 100th anniversary of WWI ending but this is not solely a wartime story and so can be read at any time and, surely, it will be read often and by many over the years. Of course, it can and should be used as a vehicle in the study of the Great War and young peoples, especially girls, lives at the time in schools, libraries and homes. This is a book worthy of any and every bookshelf everywhere, deserved of all the praise and plaudits it has and should receive. I liked it and would highly recommend to all.

I received an e-copy off The Skylarks’ War from the publisher via NetGalley – for which, my thanks. I have not received any payment and all thoughts are my own.

I great book to read to older primary school children. The children I read this to really enjoyed it and it is appropriate at this time of the year.

The Skylarks War by Hilary McKay is a children's historical novel which I found to be just as interesting and engaging to adults.
The story begins in 1902 and follows the lives of Clarry and her brother Peter who grow up in a house without love but yet find love in unusual places.
The characters are easy to relate to and heartwarming. I found myself really wanting them to come out on top and I was really hoping the father figure would show some compassion and love for his children and it was heartbreaking how little he cared for them.
The reader is taken along as we watch the children grow and develop before the war and when their innocent childhood clashes with the battlefields of World War One, we feel their pain.
I would definitely recommend this novel for anyone over the age 12. Breathtaking magnificence!

A glorious read of love and family and war. Poignant and compelling I flew through the chapters wanting to know what happened.

A definite classic in the making, this is a delightful story of life at the beginning of the First World War for a brother and sister growing up with no Mother and their cousin whose parents are always absent. This coming of age tale is told with period authenticity but big subjects are covered with sensitivity and understanding. This could be a wonderful film.

Hmm, chop off two characters from the Famous Five and you are left with a kind responsible one, a lairy one and a grumpy one. Now add a gruff father, sandwiches, lashings of ginger beer, Cornish beaches, boarding schools and jolly hockeysticks, garnish with weird childish moods and you have an approximation of “Skylarks”. Every scene has been sanitised even the war front had a wash with Dettol. The protagonists Clarry (!), Peter and Rupert (!) sound like starchy Blyton children even when grown up.

Some huge events seem to lend themselves to being told most effectively in books aimed at a younger audience. While stories for adults can convey what life was like during times of upheaval for individuals, it can take a child’s point of view to really express the impact felt by ordinary people as a group. This book, published as <i>The Skylarks’ War</i> in the UK and <i>Love to Everyone</i> in the US, follows a group of youngsters coming of age in the years leading up to the First World War. I think I prefer the UK title, and I most definitely prefer the UK cover.

Clarry Penrose’s mother died within days of her birth, leaving Clarry and her older brother Peter to be brought up by a succession of housekeepers and neighbours, their father being emotionally and often physically absent. Their lives settle into two distinct patterns: Cornwall in the summer holidays, when they stay with their grandparents and their older cousin Rupert, and not-Cornwall for the rest of the year, when Peter goes to school and Clarry is mostly left to educate herself with the aid of Peter’s books and homework. In Cornwall, the children have all kinds of adventures and accidents, while their lives away from Cornwall seem grey and dull by comparison.

Eventually, Peter is deemed old enough and clever enough to be sent away to boarding school with Rupert, a fate he dreads. After a shaky start, however, he makes friends with a boy whose family live close to his own and whose sister soon befriends Clarry. Through her new friends, Clarry learns of the girls’ grammar school on the other side of town, and soon she is making plans to get a place there, with the prospect of one day being able to attend an Oxford college, just as everyone expects her brother to do.

The outbreak of war changes everyone’s lives. Rupert enlists, along with one of his school friends – much to his grandparents’ horror – and Clarry’s older friends go off to become nurses and carry out other vital work, leaving Clarry to try to keep house for her father. Peter, meanwhile, is at a bit of a loose end, prevented by a childhood injury from enlisting, until a chance meeting with an Oxford professor sends him down a very different career path from the one his father envisioned for him.

I loved the lyrical prose of this story and the way so much of what the children were thinking and feeling was conveyed in the letters and gifts they sent each other when separated by school or the war. I also liked the variety of characters we met and the way differences between then and now were explained simply but neatly as being the way things were done back then. The book doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war, but Clarry and her friends and family find a variety of ingenious ways to make life better, including spiriting away her grandfather’s old pony when he threatens to send it off to join Rupert at the front, Rupert’s letters home having painted a much cheerier picture of life in the trenches than anything he’s actually experiencing.

All in all, an excellent book that I’ll be buying for friends and relatives this Christmas, as well as looking out for other books by the author.

I loved this book from start to finish. It's a gentle tale of a family: Clarry and Peter (brother and sister) and their magical cousin Rupert.

The story starts when Clarry is born in the early 1900s and moves through to the First World War and its aftermath.

It's a fantastic exploration of an idyllic England on the cusp of devastation, with delightful characters, beautiful description and a wonderful pace. Ideal for fans of Michelle Magorian, I can't recommend this novel enough.

The Skylarks War by Hilary McKay is a delightful children's historical novel to be enjoyed by ages ten to adult. The story begins in 1902 continuing into World War I.
The reader follows two siblings, their cousin and friends. We get to know them intimately. We like them and care about their outcomes. We watch as they grow and develop before becoming embroiled in war. Their idyllic childhood summers contrast with the battlefields of World War I. War effects those at home and at the Front. Lies are told to keep spirits high. What purpose would it serve to reveal the true horrors of war? The reader gets caught up in the patriotic fervour as we witness the preparations of parcels and letters.
Massive changes occurred during the first part of the twentieth century, not least the role of women. Ironically it would be World War I that helped to advance the cause and voice of women. Clarry's desire for an education resulted in an amusing exchange with her father. " 'Why on earth would you want that type of education?' 'To learn things.'... 'What would be the point?' asked her truly baffled father."
Boys were sent to boarding school, an institution that made or broke them. The reader glimpses the loneliness and also the camaraderie of the boys bonding over tuck. It was very reminiscent of my girlhood reads of Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers. Bonds formed in youth survive.
In spite of being considerably older than ten, I really enjoyed The Skylarks War. Hilary McKay has really caught the atmosphere of the time and the horrors of war. The whole period really comes alive. I think The Skylarks War should be studied by year seven and eight in schools as part of the national curriculum. I would love to see The Skylarks War turned into a film - any BBC producers out there, please take note.
An absolutely cracking read.
I received this book for free from Net Galley. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

An absolutely absorbing read by one of my favourite modern writers. McKay transports the reader to the early twentieth century; a tumultuous time for women, and Clarry lives through it all. First she fights to attend a grammar school, then to work, to swim, to ride a bicycle and finally for her education. Yes, there is a hint of a love story throughout but the focus is very much on Clarry's ability to become independent and successful.
Clarry is very much the star of the novel however all the supporting characters also come alive in their own ways including Miss Vane with her surprising willingness to help take Clarry on her desperate hunt,
My favourite moment had to be when Clarry is faced with the (kindly meant) gift of.a duck and she deals with it by saying to her brother "stand guard whilst I bury it in the churchyard." A laugh out loud moment amidst war and destruction.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It wasn't a bad at all. I think if I hadn't had high expectations of it, I probably would have liked it a lot more. But the fact that I was hoping to love it made it disappointing.

I liked the characters a lot though. The way that Clarry and Peter were treated by their father was very sad, I was glad when they went to Cornwall and found Rupert and had a much nicer time. It was interesting to see how the relationships developed and grew before changing over the course of the war.

I loved the letters between the characters and the way that they interacted, but I do feel like it would have been nice to see Clarry doing a bit more than just going to school during the war. I wanted her to achieve something, the same a those around her, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed that we saw the war more through the other character's lives while she was at school.

I guess I just wanted more from the book. It was touching and gave a good look at the time period, but I wanted more.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. This book was based in Cornwall and about friendship and family. Slow start but still enjoyed it