Clara and Ruby run the underground library after the overground library was bombed, There is a whole community living in the Underground Station and the library helps foster the community spirit. They try to encourage children into storytime sessions and get books out to the women working long hours.
I was totally absorbed in this book- showing the power books have , allowing people to escape nightmare situations creating a magical oasis. It leaves you with a sense of the hardship many people faced after losing their homes and the importance of friendship and businesses going the extra mile to help communities through tough times.

Beautifully written and a great storyline. This book really was a delight to read. Telling the story of friendship and love and survival.

Books, reading and therefore libraries are important at all times and in this novel, based on events during the Second World War, are important to the residents of Bethnal Green.

The unfinished underground station becomes the unlikely home of the Bethnal Green library as the original one was destroyed during the blitz. Librarian, Clara Button and her assistant Ruby Monroe have decamped underground to still serve the local residents with books, information , a shoulder to cry on and most importantly forms of escapism. But it is not just the locals, a whole world has opened up underneath he streets of London and bombed out residents are seeking shelter as well.

This is a forward thinking library, with bedtime stories for the smaller residents of the station as well as visits to local factories for those on shift work that cannot get to the library, a solace for overwhelmed mothers and an information point on being able to take control of your life. For some Clara and her ideas are a bit too forward thinking and it seems is cutting articles out of newspapers and spying on what is really going on amongst the bookshelves of stories.

A wonderful book full of so much, the impact of war on many different generations, domestic violence, female emancipation, sexual freedoms, loss, death, grief and that stoicism that seems to come out of these times.

An escapism to another time, which shows you the joy books bring no matter when we are reading them and under what circumstances.

For fans of books, libraries, reading and books based on the Second World War.

Great read telling the tale of wartime life. How reading kept the spirits alive during the Second World War and the story of those who ran it

I loved this book. It captures perfectly the pulling-together of people in war time. The character of Clara is explored thoroughly, and the children who were individually drawn are so real! The whole book is so atmospheric. A lovely read.

A Beating Heart,,,
Grit and determination in the face of adversity in this historical fiction based on a real life underground library active during the war. A library that becomes the real beating heart of the underground in London. Written with a flourish and with a compelling narrative highlighting empathy, courage and compassion.

I started reading this thinking it would be a nice fluffy story about stoic women doing their bit and getting through the Second World War and it was so much more. I kept wanting to pick it up and read more and more but also didn’t want the book to finish. To know that the book was based on a truth, the fact that there was an Underground library in the Tube tunnels, was something I never knew. The author wrote with such knowledge and compassion and I’m sure, a lot of artistic licence, and produced one of the best books I have read for a long time. The way it was written was full of atmosphere and you could imagine yourself down in the tube station, being part of the lives of all the characters, what it was like and will certainly make me stop and take a breath next time I get the tube. The book also made me think about my use of the library and just how important they are to every community, how all children and adults should be encouraged to read, be able to escape into a story, fully absorb it and sometimes forget what is going on around them which time is priceless. All in all a fabulous book that will stay with me for a long time.

This is a lovely heartwarming book based on true events during the second world war in 1944 London.

During the first week of the blitz, the Bethnal Green library was destroyed. Due to the war the construction of the Bethnal Green tube station stopped and the empty space wasn't being used, so Clara Button and her assistant Ruby Munroe opened an underground library for the 5,000 homeless people living in the underground.

It is a well researched book about community, friendships, love, loss, strength and resilience with a superb cast of characters.

This is a book for book lovers everywhere!

I really enjoyed this book, and the fact that it is based on a true story, enhanced the experience for me. I really love it when a work of fiction weaves real-life facts into the story.

Clara Button is a young widow and the librarian at a wholly underground library. There is a whole community which has sprung up in a disused underground station - a good place to hide when there are bombs falling up above which are destroying your community and killing your friends and family. Clara's best friend is Ruby, a girl who couldn't be more different from Clara if she tried. Despite their differences in personality, they are very close and it is their friendship which gets them both through. Both young women have been through trauma in their pasts and Ruby is still trying to help her mum deal with her abusive second husband.

I have to admit that my admiration for those people who had to endure the conditions prevalent at the time has only grown after reading this book. They bred them tough and resourceful, back then.

Great book and I learned a great deal, especially about the tragedy that happened at Bethnal Green in 1943. I did a bit of reading up on it, and I love the memorial that was created to honour those who lost their lives.

5 stars from me.

The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson

It's 1944 and Clara Button and her best friend Ruby Munroe run the country's only underground Library, built over the disused tracks of Bethnal Green Station. They are in good company - there is also a Theatre, a Nursery, a cafe and hundreds of bunk beds creating a safe space for the people of London.

Clara is widowed, and Ruby lives with her mother, and horrible step-father, and she tries her best to keep her mum safe.

This is an incredible book, especially when you realise that it is based on a true story. The Library actually existed, and this books gives a fantastic snapshot of life in wartime Britain. I couldn't put it down.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4653545197

A great book, which is beautifully written, and I liked that it was based on true events.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

This is an absolutely lovely, moving book, made all the better for the fact it’s based on a true story. I marveled at the ability of the Londoners to give up their lives and basically move underground for the duration of the bombing. I can’t imagine how terrifying it must have been, especially with children.

The underground setup was amazing, it had just about everything a person away from homes could want, especially a library with books to read and escape the terror of war. When the Nazi doodlebugs started falling it was even more terrifying to be outside. The rockets could be launched day or night, and were nearly soundless until they were too nearby to escape.

Blurb:
London, 1944.
Clara Button is no ordinary librarian. While the world remains at war, in East London Clara has created the country's only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station. Down here a secret community thrives: with thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre offering shelter, solace and escape from the bombs that fall above.
Along with her glamorous best friend and library assistant Ruby Munroe, Clara ensures the library is the beating heart of life underground. But as the war drags on, the women's determination to remain strong in the face of adversity is tested to the limits when it seems it may come at the price of keeping those closest to them alive.
Based on true events, The Little Wartime Library is a gripping and heart-wrenching page-turner that remembers one of the greatest resistance stories of the war..
I found myself wondering if I would be up to the task of managing the underground library and feeling responsible for so many people. I honestly don’t know.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

This is an outstanding book that I’m happy to recommend, 5 stars.

I loved this book from start to finish , it is an amazing and poignant read. A word of warning, have a box of tissues at the ready. No other words needed the title sums it up. Many thanks to the author, Netgalley and TBC for giving me the opportunity to read this fabulous book.

This is a beautiful and touching story about Clara Button and friend Ruby who work at the country's only underground library, built over the tracks in the disused Bethnal Green tube station.

The story follows the lives of the secret community who frequent the library and gives great depth and insight into how people forged friendships through such difficult war years underground.

Loved the style of writing very descriptive.but not in a boring way. Thanks to Net Galley for granting this book.

The blurb was enticing and the idea of story about a wartime library based on real events was promising. However, I didn’t manage to get into the story. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that I’ve recently read two historical novels of the same genre and I need a little break, but something was missing to keep me interested. I could try and take it up later…

Just a side note the editor: please add a .mobi format for Kindle readers next time, it really makes the reading experience better.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It pulled me in and had a couple of really good little twists that I did not see coming. It was very well written, in that you can develop that connection with the characters, and leaves you wanting more. I would definitely recommend this book to others. Well worth the read. 8/10

🔖 It’s 1944, and while the war destroys buildings, houses and people, librarian Clara Button and her best friend Ruby decide to create the country's only underground library. Down the disused Bethnal Green tube station, a secret community thrives: with not only Clara's library, but also thousands of bunk beds, a nursery, a café and a theatre offering shelter. Clara's choice is not easy, but she is determined to help those around her and bring the joy of reading.⁠
⁠
❤️ I liked:⁠
👩 Clara. A war widow devoted to books and to the idea that women and children have the same right as men to read any book they want. ⁠
👩 Ruby. Strong and, at the same time, extremely vulnerable. She lives to help others and loves her mother and her best friend more than her own life. ⁠
📖 Books are for everybody. In a society where women shouldn't read too much and children are considered just a nuisance, Clara strongly believes not only that everybody should read, but that they should be allowed to read any kind of book they want. Girls shouldn't be forced to read only books "for girls". Romance and fiction are as good as non-fiction. ⁠
💪 Women's rights. This topic is quite crucial in the book. The author talks about abusive husbands, rape, miscarriage... and much more. ⁠
It's based on a true story. Now, I am not sure to what extent this novel is based on a true story, but I would love to know more about it.⁠
⁠
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 A big big big five. If you love books about books, if you spent your childhood ⁠
at your local library, and if you enjoy good historical fiction, this is definitely the book for you! Thanks to #netgalley for the preview.

Wow what can I say you have excelled in telling us all this wonderful story of how the families and children of East London coped during the difficult time during World War Two.
I have been a bookworm from a very young age and have lots of happy memories going to our local library weekly with my Mum and Nan after doing our weekly shop. I use the Central Line and often wondered how is was for people living down the depths of Bethnal Green station for the duration of the War.
Kate thank you for all the extensive research you have done to be able to bring this book to life for us all. The descriptive way you wrote this book book brought it to life for everyone who reads it. I was drawn in from page one. You brought every emotion going into this book. I felt I was there with all the characters through every tear shed and every laugh too. I really wish I could give this more then five stars it deserves so much more.
This book would make a great film. Your words brought to life the heartache love and friendship of the people of Bethnal Green ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a wonderful story bringing the Second World War in London to life.

You can literally smell the Underground and the streets of London.

The characters are varied and well developed with the story giving you the full range of emotions.

Brilliant.

The Little Wartime Library is based on real events and is absolutely extraordinary! It is insightful and will lead you to a library you may not have known existed where it did. It is far from your usual place in this book with a fascinating page-turning, heartwarming plot, based on a lot of fact. I am truly impressed.

Thanks to Kate Thompson for allowing me to review and to be part of an interview process of 100 librarians for an article (not commented on this review, as I have not seen it, but what I have commented on is the book itself and the author's note). This is an important and must read book for all of society.

Readers meet Clara Button in 1944 in the East End of London. She created a safe library underground, when there was war all around. The introduction to her and this story is fascinating and shows the flexibility and resilience of librarians and their assistants.
Throughout, there are some quotes taken from various librarians. There is mention of an article. I have not seen this in the proof copy I had to review from.

Kate Thompson has interviewed 100 librarians, I was absolutely priveleged to be one of them. She writes an authors note, addressing librarians and also for anyone reading her book, that is so pleasing to read. It is a bit like a love letter. She has debunked many myths about libraries and librarians and also tells a truth about what is happening to them, as well as their importance and how and why they are still as relevant today as they ever were. I've never read anything like it and nor am I probably ever likely to again and for this, I thank Kate Thompson for what makes my heart soar with joy that someone truly understands.

There's an adventure to be embarked. One of history and a library to be found and suddenly readers are hurtled back from the present day, (where it begins in the prologue) to 1944. It is an emotional, vivid and inspiring book.
This book shows that in 1944, libraries didn't disappear as such and this one ingeniously moved underground. Clara is such a likeable character and it is so interesting getting to know her and her best friend and library assistant - Ruby Munroe. Clara has such strength in character, that she carried on, even through her own grief. I got a sense that her and I just might have got along.

The writing shows that a lot of research has been put in and yet it is light with its touch. It is a beautiful story of war, resillience, love and loss and of course libraries carrying on no matter what is thrown at them. It pulls you in and the style of writing is entrancing. It's a feast for the eyes and mind with characters that are fascinating to meet, some with their own issues to deal with, including Clara herself with her family, especially the fractious relationship between her and her mother as far as the library was concerned. There is also a new boss, who is not likeable and may cause readers to have a fixed glare at his character, despite this, the library is abuzz with atmosphere and people reaching out for books.

There is also Ruby's story being told in alternating chapters and as it unfolds, you get to know what a lovely friend she is to Clara. She also has a penchant for Gin cocktails. There is also some flirtation going on with some of the ARP. 

Weaved amongst the two main characters are the lives of others within the area and it all becomes a rich tapestry of people from all different backgrounds, with their own stories to tell, some are the most heart-wrenching anyone could have. There are other big themes on mysoginist attitudes, that also encapsulate what was happening socially at the time, including attitudes around reading. There's a lot of strong observation in the book that perhaps highlights certain things that aren't always examined when looking at war-times, more topics looked at before and after, not always during, so that stands-out too.

There is trepidation, other than the dangers of war of course, that is very gripping.

Time moves onwards and Clara and Ruby are still there, and some of the debates around reading are still the same in 2022. Much like now, the library was under threat of closure, what ensues is a sobering thought. Suddenly by the end of some voracious reading, it is hard not to read slower, wondering what is going to happen as there was a turn of events earlier.

The book finishes with a wonderful epilogue, returning readers back to present day, where they began and this demonstrates the arcs that bridge different time periods very well.