This book is not what I expected, but an interesting read nonetheless. It was an honest and moving read told through a collection of stories and recollections. It was particularly interesting to read how different her experiences were.

Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for sending me this arc. I will be posting this review on my Goodreads and Storygraph accounts.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/57438368-georgie
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/gfairs’

Thank you to NetGalley for this copy. This is a really good book, kept me entertained throughout and I would thoroughly recommend to all.

Thank you for allowing me to review this short book. It was an easy, readable book about the authors experiences of war and evacuation from London. My mother was also evacuated and spoke a little of her experience which was mostly good. I believe this book could easily be shared with KS2 children by their teacher or parents. Older, KS3 pupils could read it for themselves.whilst studying the war. It is important that these experiences are remembered.
Kitty gives talks at the Imperial War museum, so this is a result of that voluntary work.

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Many thanx to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for allowing me to read and review this book.

Was a nice book, told very simply about Kitty's evacuation from London and the hardships she had to endure.
I was expecting a totally different read but enjoyed it none the less. Simply written so that teens could enjoy

This is not what I thought it was going to be. Written in the first person, it could easily be used with primary school children (I’d say KS2). The story was well told, but it didn’t really go into gory detail (hence why it could be used with children). I really enjoyed this and will be using parts with my own students.

I'll Take That One by Kitty Baxter

Kitty Baxter was born in London in 1930, the daughter of a road sweeper and a cleaner and one of five children. War broke out just as Kitty turned nine and she became one of thousands of children evacuated to the countryside. This would be the first of three times that she was rehoused far from home over the course of the war.
I enjoyed hearing about how Kitty as a young child was sent away as thousands of children were during the war from cities to much more rural areas for their safety.
My mother in law was also an evacuated from London , in her case to a farm in Devon. Her story was also not a happy one.

I read this after seeing and getting the book through Netgalley. My thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this opportunity. This does not affect my review in any way, the following is my unbiased opinion.
I was interested in this instantly because my mother was evacuated during the war and I never really questioned her about this experience and now, sadly don’t have the option.
We have quite a lengthy section on Kitty’s life and family in London before the advent of the war and while interesting, it didn’t enthral me. From about half way through it became a digital page turner.
Kitty experienced 3 periods of evacuation and they were all very different. The last one being very amusing, but you’ll have to read the book to find out why!
The style of writing didn’t always work for me. It is as if you are talking with a child, but I can understand why it was used. At the end, we learn that the author has been giving lectures to children in schools for some time and I wonder if this is aimed more for a pre-teen audience. That would explain the simplicity of the language.
Either way, I really enjoyed this in the end and 3 stars seems fair overall.
Such a brave lady and I hope in reading this, some of our modern day evacuees will draw comfort.

A delightful book about the memories of a child growing up during WW2. It describes her experiences as an evacuee, some very unhappy times with reluctant hosts, but other happier times with kind people.
It shows how difficult it was for the family and makes you wonder how they ever survived the hardships and heartache. There were some real tear jerking moments in the book but also some happy events. If you’re old enough to remember those times it will bring back memories of many things. If you’re too young it will give you an interesting insight into life at that time and wonder at the fortitude and determination of the families of that era.

This book is a simply told memoir of a young girl living through a time during the war seems almost unbelievable today It reads like it’s centuries ago but obviously it is actually our fairly recent domestic history.

This is not quite what I was expecting, but it is interesting nonetheless. Rather than a linear narrative, it’s a collection of stories and recollections from a young girl’s wartime experience. It is harrowing at times, but very human and relatable. It describes a time beyond the experience and familiarity of so many people in UK today, and as such, is a very valuable story. I enjoyed this book.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

This is a short but uniquely moving account of Kitty Baxter’s experience during her time as an evacuee during WW11.
Possibly one of the last of her generation to be able to get her story told while she is still able.
As we know children spent many years cut off from their parents & thrown into a life of living with strangers.
Although some faired well there were many that did not.
Many were treated no better than glorified servants & had a hard life.
Kitty was rehoused three times during the course of the war & each time they were very different experiences.
I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir of Kitty’s war years it was a captivating yet heartbreaking read at times.
Well written with Kitty’s voice as narrative it is an enjoyable easy read told in the form of a novel.
Told through the innocence of a child’s eyes the story is told with honesty.
Absolutely loved this short interesting read that captivated me throughout.

This is a short but interesting insight into one girl’s experiences of wartime London and of evacuation. I was expecting the book to primarily be about her evacuation experience but we actually got more of her life in London. It was still interesting but not quite what I expected!
The tone is conversational & informal, and you can deifnitely picture Kitty chatting with you over a cup of tea to share her stories. This snippets don’t flow like a story but are a selection of memories grouped in rough themes which together give a picture of a childhood that was significantly impacted by the war. She was evacuated three times, once with her two older sisters, then with her younger brother as the Blitz in London worsened. Each experience was different.
Thank you Kitty for sharing your story with those of us who are too young to have experienced it.

A lovely little memoir giving both first hand insight into The Blitz and to evacuation. Hearing about how happy and content Kitty was with so little living in a tiny flat and sharing a bed with her two sisters and later on with a brother as well it is a reminder to all how ungrateful we are for the luxuries we all have and how obsessed with money and possessions we are now. It was fascinating to see how varied the experiences of billets were as most of the stories I’ve read about evacuation are of one placement for a long duration but there must have been hundreds of children like Kitty and her siblings moving from home to the country, back to London and then back to the country.
Reading at the end that Kitty to this day works to help educate young people about the war is wonderful and this memoir really ought to be on school reading lists as it is short and simply told enough for young readers to grasp and enjoy.

A lovely story, told really well, of Kitty Baxter's childhood in London during the War. She had a loving family - two sisters and two brothers - and the elder three were evacuated at the beginning of the War. Eventually Kitty was evacuated three times, as the blitz in London worsened, and each experience was very different. Her family suffered heartbreak but showed the true Cockney spirit of survival.

It was lovely to hear her voice in the narrative, which she tells simply with great impact. The book should be part of the school curriculum for youngsters to learn what a previous generation had to live through. A really good read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Allison & Busby for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A short but very moving account of the experiences faced by young children evacuated from London during WWII. I was born in 1945 in Yorkshire so my memories are of growing up in the post-war austerity years.
Kitty's short memoir lays bare the traumatic and sometimes happy experiences of the children evacuated from London to the country, and the hardships suffered by the people of London during the Blitz.
Stories like this need to be told in order that future generations can see the past clearly.
I have been left with a strong admiration not only for Kitty but for her mother in dealing with a large family on her own with the horrors of war, poverty, and finally the loss of her husband in Italy.
This is a short read, memories written down simply and without embellishment in which a very realistic picture is painted through the innocence of a child's eyes.
I can highly recommend this book.

This book was a really interesting read. Nicely written and easy to read , it tells of life during WW2 from the perspective of the author who was evacuated as a child.
Although it’s a fairly short story, it is nevertheless a highly emotive story and some parts were quite honestly, not easy to read. They were pretty harrowing at times.
Reading it by today’s standards, there are things that make you stop and wonder how people could treat children like that, but then there were different standards back then that allowed such behaviours to go unnoticed and unchecked.
Overall a very interesting read.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

Memories of a childhood spent during the war years. Kitty tells us what it was like being brought up by hardworking parents who thought they were doing their best for their children by evacuating them. The story describes being treated as unpaid workers who didn’t even get to go to school.. Thing that are just accepted as the norm today. At one point they were taken in by a lady who liked to be called madam. ( with good reason)!

Not a long story but a very interesting one. I enjoyed reading about what life was like before the war but the war years were harrowing. Very sad in places. It was awful that people could just pick a child without the adult being vetted. How many children were abused mentally and physically by bad people.? Well worth reading.

This is an evocative and harrowing account of the second world war  in London through the eyes of the author as a young girl.

Kitty shares her experiences of living through the blitz in London, being evacuated thrice and the sad loss of friends and family members.

The novel is is written in a light-hearted style, but also conveys the fear and anxiety of the time. This was a quick read for me but I really enjoyed reading about Kitty's experiences and got a real sense of the bravery and resilience  of the families that lived through the war.

I'll take that one is a fascinating but relatively short insight into the life of a young Kitty during WW2. Although this was a quick book to read I learned about aspects of the war I hadn't know previously. This was all the more interesting as my late father who was also a Lindores during the war had been evacuated too.

I highly recommend this book, uts an easy read told in a conversational manner, very engaging.