My mother’s younger sister, who is not only my favourite aunt but also with regard to reading tastes often very much a kindred spirit, she has repeatedly told me that Eric Linklater's 1944 Carnegie Medal winning novel The Wind on the Moon was one of her favourite reads when she was a young teenager (in early 1950s Germany, so of course my aunt was reading the German language translation, which is titled Wind im Mond). But whenever I have asked my aunt specific plot related questions about The Wind on the Moon, all that she could tell me was that she adored Eric Linklater's descriptions and how wonderfully atmospheric The Wind on the Moon was for her as a young reader, but that she, that my aunt basically had no recollections at all of the themes and specific contents. And well, after now having finished with The Wind on the Moon, I do have to admit being a bit surprised that for my aunt The Wind on the Moon, that Eric Linklater's story of adventure, mischief and fantasy was (and still rather remains) such a huge favourite. Sure, I do very much agree with my aunt's textual and emotional appreciation, with her adoration of Linklater's descriptions in The Wind on the Moon of wartime Great Britain, with the unrelenting rations and that freedom, that fun are shown by the author to indeed be in extremely short supply. But sorry, albeit I am to a certain extent enjoying reading about co-protagonists Dinah and Dorinda's mischievousness, personally I (and indeed, both for my adult self and for my inner child) generally need and also want realistic shenanigans and escapades and I therefore do very much tend to find Eric Linklater's focus in The Wind on the Moon on the fantastical and in particular on a number of talking animals not really to my reading tastes and actually quite annoying, with me especially finding Dinah and Dorinda drinking some potion to turn them into talking kangaroos majorly textually aggravating.
For I just DO NOT like and have NEVER liked anthropomorphic animal stories all that much, and much of the presented contents of The Wind on the Moon and Eric Linklater's text for this particular reason just neither work for me nor speak to me (with the only reason why my rating for The Wind on the Moon is three and and not two stars being that Eric Linklater's writing is often brilliantly evocative and that for readers who enjoy fantastical tales with talking, magical animals, The Wind on the Moon would probably be a deligntful reading hit, even if The Wind on the Moon does not work for me).