That Burning Summer

Lydia Syson

Jan 2017 · Kuthengiswe ngu-Simon and Schuster

Mayelana nale ebook

It’s July 1940 on the south coast of England. A plane crash-lands in the marsh, and sixteen-year-old Peggy finds its broken pilot—a young Polish airman named Henryk. Afraid and unwilling to return to the fight, Henryk needs a place to hide, and Peggy helps him find his way to a remote, abandoned church.

Meanwhile, Peggy’s eleven-year-old brother Ernest is doing his best to try to understand the war happening around him. He’s reading all the pamphlets—he knows all the rules, he knows exactly what to do in every situation. He’s prepared, but not for Peggy’s hidden pilot.

Told in alternating points of view, this is a beautifully written story about growing up in wartime and finding the difference between following the rules and following your heart.

Mayelana nomlobi

Lydia Syson is the author of A World Between Us and Liberty’s Fire. She is a fifth-generation North Londoner who started her career as a BBC World Service radio producer. A frequent contributor to The History Girls blog, she is also a member of the Scattered Author’s Society, the Society of Authors, the Historical Writers Association, and Children’s Writers and Illustrators in South London. She lives in London, England, with her partner and four children.

Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.