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My Story: Girls
Blitz: The Diary of Edie Benson, London, 1940-1941
It's 1940. Edie Benson lives in a little house in Lewisham, London, with her family. Little does she know when she starts writing her diary that the summer is going to become one of air-raid sirens, bombs, and lead to the evacuation of herself and her brother to Wales - away from everything she knows and loves.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
December 20, 2025
What a scary time WW2 has proven to be. Anyone who disagreed with Germany was not safe, therefore comes the story of a little girl growing up in a time where her neighborhood was constantly being bombed. Edie kept a diary of London Blitz between 1940-1941. In it she tells of her fear for her parents and her brother and sisters, hiding out in backyard bomb shelter when the air raids went off, and her life in general.
This is a great book to introduce young adults to one of the scariest times in history without scaring them to much as it's told through the eyes of a young girl.
This is a great book to introduce young adults to one of the scariest times in history without scaring them to much as it's told through the eyes of a young girl.
February 28, 2013
This book is based on the lives of people living in the famous London Blitz of 1939. It is a diary entry from 1940 by a girl named Edie. I like it because it explains how Edie's family felt during the bombing, so it explains their feelings clearly, I also like the bombing, because you can kind of feel what it's like to be there inside the air-raid shelter.
Edie and her family are living in south London in Lewisham num.47 Summerfield Road with her Mum, (Beatrice)her Dad, (David) her little brother, (Tom) her big sister (Shirl) her big brother (Frank) and of course Edie. Edie is 10 when she starts to write the diary and this is what had happened.
David is in the ARP and so her Mum has to look after the children while Frank is the air force but then he sadly dies in a crash land near where they lived and while their Dad goes to try and put fires at rest until her Mum decides to also join the ARP to do her part in the war, but soon its gets a bit too dangerous and Edie and Tom are evacuated to Llantrisant in Wales where there is no bombing because the Germans didn't think that is was worthwhile bombing the place because there was nothing much there just farms and no cities and no major buildings to bomb so they thought it was just a waist of time.
Edie and Tom suffer in their new home in Wales with an unpleasant elderly couple named Mr & Mrs James. They work on a farm and obviously have to help, don't they? School was really awful, but at first it was alright, they had a nice teacher called Mrs Williams and made them talk about the life in Lewisham. Children kept on giving them dirty looks, at the school there is a bully called Phillip Morgan and he had a fight with Tom and obviously Edie had to go and sort it out and she got in trouble with Mr James and got sent upstairs.
Edie had had enough, Shirl gave her £10 so Edie spent it on train tickets and managed to escape. When Edie and Tom returned to their house, the air-raid started again then sadly there house got bombed.
After when their house collapsed, they thought that they'd me moving to the Red Cross Centre, but instead they moved in to a poky flat for about a year afterwards.
Five years on: Edie is 15, Shirl got married to a man called Christopher Goodfellow he works in Downham. His job is to manufacture camera lenses that go in reconnaissance aircraft. Tom is taller than Edie, still growing fast, he has a job as a paperboy. Her Dad didn't come out of the war well, all the years of inhaling smoke and soot had gone to his chest so he was taken out of the air force and won a George Medal what very few firemen achieved during the war. Her Mum worked for the Lewisham Council and Edie wants to go to university and study history.
All in all, it was an enjoyable book. I thought that it is very helpful because it has information about World War 2. I'm glad I read this book because I wanted to know more about World War 2, so, now I know what life is like in the Blitz.
Edie and her family are living in south London in Lewisham num.47 Summerfield Road with her Mum, (Beatrice)her Dad, (David) her little brother, (Tom) her big sister (Shirl) her big brother (Frank) and of course Edie. Edie is 10 when she starts to write the diary and this is what had happened.
David is in the ARP and so her Mum has to look after the children while Frank is the air force but then he sadly dies in a crash land near where they lived and while their Dad goes to try and put fires at rest until her Mum decides to also join the ARP to do her part in the war, but soon its gets a bit too dangerous and Edie and Tom are evacuated to Llantrisant in Wales where there is no bombing because the Germans didn't think that is was worthwhile bombing the place because there was nothing much there just farms and no cities and no major buildings to bomb so they thought it was just a waist of time.
Edie and Tom suffer in their new home in Wales with an unpleasant elderly couple named Mr & Mrs James. They work on a farm and obviously have to help, don't they? School was really awful, but at first it was alright, they had a nice teacher called Mrs Williams and made them talk about the life in Lewisham. Children kept on giving them dirty looks, at the school there is a bully called Phillip Morgan and he had a fight with Tom and obviously Edie had to go and sort it out and she got in trouble with Mr James and got sent upstairs.
Edie had had enough, Shirl gave her £10 so Edie spent it on train tickets and managed to escape. When Edie and Tom returned to their house, the air-raid started again then sadly there house got bombed.
After when their house collapsed, they thought that they'd me moving to the Red Cross Centre, but instead they moved in to a poky flat for about a year afterwards.
Five years on: Edie is 15, Shirl got married to a man called Christopher Goodfellow he works in Downham. His job is to manufacture camera lenses that go in reconnaissance aircraft. Tom is taller than Edie, still growing fast, he has a job as a paperboy. Her Dad didn't come out of the war well, all the years of inhaling smoke and soot had gone to his chest so he was taken out of the air force and won a George Medal what very few firemen achieved during the war. Her Mum worked for the Lewisham Council and Edie wants to go to university and study history.
All in all, it was an enjoyable book. I thought that it is very helpful because it has information about World War 2. I'm glad I read this book because I wanted to know more about World War 2, so, now I know what life is like in the Blitz.
October 4, 2016
This was pretty good. Not amazing enough to give it four stars, but I did enjoy it. I could have used some more details at certain parts and when Edie and Tom surprised their parents by coming home from the country, everyone was much too calm about it. There were lots of good details concerning the Blitz. A few swear words and toward the end Edie says she doesn't believe in God because .
Not a bad story; just not riveting.
Not a bad story; just not riveting.
May 19, 2020
I intended to read this slowly as I normally have a history based book on the go that I read a couple of pages of most days and this book was supposed to be one of those. However, it was such a quick and easy read because of the writing style (which makes sense as it was the writing of a child) that I ended up reading it in larger chunks.
I enjoyed this book and it was a little insight to the Blitz from the perspective of a child/teenager and was worth a read.
I enjoyed this book and it was a little insight to the Blitz from the perspective of a child/teenager and was worth a read.
June 7, 2019
I enjoyed this book very much and my mum couldn’t stop me most of the time from reading it 😂 as it was a kinda small book it only took me one day to read it
October 20, 2024
Amazing war time diary penned from a very bright 12 year old girl named Edith. She used a diary to report her experiences in the second world war. She used the word dreadful quite a lot which is understandable, but what I liked most about Edith, was her resilience to disaster and such a powerful attitude to absolute horrific incidents she witnessed first hand. A great read and to think she would be close to 100 if still alive today.
July 7, 2025
I really liked this book because it was interesting and it was very good and amazing. My favourite character is Frank, the big brother of Edith, the girl who writes the diary (the book). I like him because he is very nice and intelligent. But while the blitz Frank dies sadly. What will they do now?
November 10, 2012
This story is written in the form of diary entries from a 12 year old girl named Edie Benson living in London during the blitz between 1940 and 1941. Edie’s story describes her experience of growing up during the bombings and how it affects her, her family and her community.
This is an interesting and educational story which could be used in some sort of cross curricular way between English class and history class. While the story is fictional it gives a great insight into life in London during the war. As the story is told from a girls perspective I think it would mostly be enjoyed by female readers, particularly from age 9 and upwards. As the diary entries are all quite short it makes it easy to read. I always think long chapters are off putting for young readers.
While the story is educational and interesting and deals with issues such as having a sense of responsibility (Edie looking after her little brother), knowing when to do the right thing (running away from the family in Wales), honesty (Tom stealing from Mr Lineham’s shop but learning from his mistake) and emotions and feelings, I would still only give this book 3 stars, for the following reasons:
I agree with the point raised by some other reviewers of this book on this website that the synopsis of the story on the back cover is misleading, as it indicates that the story is specifically about the children’s evacuation to Wales. In actual fact the children’s evacuation does not happen until page 67 which is about half ways through the book, and they are back in London again by page 93. They decide to run away from the family that they are staying with in Wales because they are mistreating them. Their escape from Wales could be a very exciting, thrilling and dramatic part of the story. However it is anything but, as they escape quickly and without any difficulty and arrive back in London with no consequences.
After the children return a few more events happen but the story just rolls along without much direction and I actually found that it got a bit boring. I am not sure that it is exciting, intriguing or interesting enough to hold a child’s attention. The plot is quite weak.
I borrowed this book from my ten year old niece who thought it was ok but that some of the other books in the ‘My story’ collection were better, particularly ‘Titanic’. I liked the idea of this book (a girl’s diary during the war etc) but overall it was a little disappointing.
This is an interesting and educational story which could be used in some sort of cross curricular way between English class and history class. While the story is fictional it gives a great insight into life in London during the war. As the story is told from a girls perspective I think it would mostly be enjoyed by female readers, particularly from age 9 and upwards. As the diary entries are all quite short it makes it easy to read. I always think long chapters are off putting for young readers.
While the story is educational and interesting and deals with issues such as having a sense of responsibility (Edie looking after her little brother), knowing when to do the right thing (running away from the family in Wales), honesty (Tom stealing from Mr Lineham’s shop but learning from his mistake) and emotions and feelings, I would still only give this book 3 stars, for the following reasons:
I agree with the point raised by some other reviewers of this book on this website that the synopsis of the story on the back cover is misleading, as it indicates that the story is specifically about the children’s evacuation to Wales. In actual fact the children’s evacuation does not happen until page 67 which is about half ways through the book, and they are back in London again by page 93. They decide to run away from the family that they are staying with in Wales because they are mistreating them. Their escape from Wales could be a very exciting, thrilling and dramatic part of the story. However it is anything but, as they escape quickly and without any difficulty and arrive back in London with no consequences.
After the children return a few more events happen but the story just rolls along without much direction and I actually found that it got a bit boring. I am not sure that it is exciting, intriguing or interesting enough to hold a child’s attention. The plot is quite weak.
I borrowed this book from my ten year old niece who thought it was ok but that some of the other books in the ‘My story’ collection were better, particularly ‘Titanic’. I liked the idea of this book (a girl’s diary during the war etc) but overall it was a little disappointing.
January 14, 2016
This story was probably one my favorites from the "My Story" historical series. It is a very personal, firsthand account told from Edith's point of view of World War II in England, from July 1940 to January 1941. This time is known for when bombs were being dropped on London and millions of civilians paid the price for it.
The reason this story stuck with me is because it draws on a lot of historical facts, but molds it into a personalized story of a family living at that time, making it all very real. Edith and her family witness the demolition of their city, of neighboring houses, her friends having to evacuate and the stress this all causes her own family as they huddle in terror in their air-raid shelters. We go into different aspects of the family's lives, her sister's heartbreak, her older brother's demise, and her own evacuation to Wales with her younger brother. When Edith realizes that their lives haven't gotten any better with the evacuation, and that they are in fact being mistreated, she gathers all her courage to make the journey back to her family. A risk that could have gone wrong in many ways. I think that part of the story got to me the most, her bravery, her loyalty to her family, her protectiveness of her brother, the reunion, all of it was incredibly heartfelt.
A great story of how an average person was affected by war, and how it tore many families apart. A historical lesson learnt for sure, however this was also a human story with many humane lessons to be taken from it.
The reason this story stuck with me is because it draws on a lot of historical facts, but molds it into a personalized story of a family living at that time, making it all very real. Edith and her family witness the demolition of their city, of neighboring houses, her friends having to evacuate and the stress this all causes her own family as they huddle in terror in their air-raid shelters. We go into different aspects of the family's lives, her sister's heartbreak, her older brother's demise, and her own evacuation to Wales with her younger brother. When Edith realizes that their lives haven't gotten any better with the evacuation, and that they are in fact being mistreated, she gathers all her courage to make the journey back to her family. A risk that could have gone wrong in many ways. I think that part of the story got to me the most, her bravery, her loyalty to her family, her protectiveness of her brother, the reunion, all of it was incredibly heartfelt.
A great story of how an average person was affected by war, and how it tore many families apart. A historical lesson learnt for sure, however this was also a human story with many humane lessons to be taken from it.
October 29, 2009
A young adult book the presents a well researched portrayal of life during the blitz. The cover description is misleading as only a small portion of the story concerns the evacuation to Wales - the bulk of the story is London during the blitz. While character and plot are mediocre, the book meets it purpose in providing a very good setting. Could be very useful for study of the blitz in Junior High.
May 20, 2008
This is a really good book set in Lewisham, London during World War 2. It is a diary of a girl called Edie and what she goes through in everyday life.
March 28, 2020
This wavers between reading like a diary and reading like a story categorized by day.
Edie and her family are living in London during the 2nd World War. Edie mostly talks of things like watching her brother because her sister is out partying til indecent hours. There's some talk of getting a bomb shelter for the garden and then we go through part of the blitz. Edie and her younger brother are shipped off to Wales, very briefly, where they are miserable, stuck with two older people who don't give a lick for Edia or her brother and do nothing criticize their behavior. So Edie takes her brother and they run away back home. It really did feel like it was plunked in there just to cover that part of history....
All in all I never really connected with Edie or any of her family on any level so it definitely effected the overall score. There also wasn't anything in this book that I would call 'new' information to me.
Anyhow, this diary isn't anything you haven't read before if you are interested in reading historical fiction from this time period. There are better books out there. There are worse too, mind you.
Edie and her family are living in London during the 2nd World War. Edie mostly talks of things like watching her brother because her sister is out partying til indecent hours. There's some talk of getting a bomb shelter for the garden and then we go through part of the blitz. Edie and her younger brother are shipped off to Wales, very briefly, where they are miserable, stuck with two older people who don't give a lick for Edia or her brother and do nothing criticize their behavior. So Edie takes her brother and they run away back home. It really did feel like it was plunked in there just to cover that part of history....
All in all I never really connected with Edie or any of her family on any level so it definitely effected the overall score. There also wasn't anything in this book that I would call 'new' information to me.
Anyhow, this diary isn't anything you haven't read before if you are interested in reading historical fiction from this time period. There are better books out there. There are worse too, mind you.
July 23, 2017
This isn't a bad book, but it's one that's trying to wear a lot of hats all at once and suffering in the attempt. It's a story about evacuees, and the Blitz, and family strife all at once--and while that can be done well, it needs more pages than this book got. It lacks some emotional resonance, so while it's a nice little story about the Blitz, it could definitely be much better.
For my full review including spoilers, check out Young Adult Historical Vault. https://yahistoricalvault.com/2017/05...
For my full review including spoilers, check out Young Adult Historical Vault. https://yahistoricalvault.com/2017/05...
August 7, 2017
Interesting middle-grade book about living in the Blitz. Edie was an interesting enough character and I liked her description of her family as well as her POV on things, like the constant air raids, her parents going out and seeing horrible things on the streets and being evacuated with her younger brother. I wish they had focused more of the evacuation but it was very quick after everything and the didn't come as much of a surprise after everything. Still, it was a quick enough read and enjoyable for what it was.
April 1, 2022
I really loved and enjoyed this. Such a marvellous historical diary written from the POV of a twelve/eleven year old during WW2 in london. It gives an insight to the new generation about the lives of people during wartime and how unstable lives of kids can become when there is a war around. This books views the horrors of war from the childish eyes of a young girl. A must read for children as well as adults alike.
October 2, 2022
I loved this book. As I was born in 1940 in London it brought back memories. Although this is set in 1940 much of it was still happening in the next 4 or 5 years. I remember sleeping in an Anderson shelter in my nan's back yard. Watching the buzz bombs go over,while standing at the gate with my grandad. This little book brought the horror of the war back very clearly. I am certainly glad I was too young to really understand.
April 1, 2018
This was an interesting story told in the form of a diary. It tell the story of Edie, a girl in London during The Blitz 1940 and the start of 1941. It would be a good book for kids to read to understand a bit about the impact of WW2 and the Blitz on families.
December 28, 2019
One of the best my story books.
I have read......
Blitz
Titanic
The hunger
Mill Girl
Pompeii
Sophie's Secret War (Which is, in my opinion, a bit better than this)
Workhouse
And have just started Codename Celine.
I have read......
Blitz
Titanic
The hunger
Mill Girl
Pompeii
Sophie's Secret War (Which is, in my opinion, a bit better than this)
Workhouse
And have just started Codename Celine.
March 13, 2022
This book is highly detailed diary of a girl (Edie) and her experiences of the Blitz in London. This is one of my favourite books, but I would have liked a description of Edie- what she looks like and maybe more of her personality
December 18, 2023
I did enjoy this one. It gave a detailed account of the Blitz and Edie is a brilliant character. I feel like more could have been shown regarding her relationships with her family, especially Shirl and Tom, but considering that this book is aimed at children I can understand why not.
June 13, 2025
It was a sad fictional account of a history that was very probably real for very many children. I found this book in the children's/ young teen books in my library, I'm not sure if it should be for an older reader, because there's no gory details but there are some very scary and harsh truths.
April 30, 2018
it was cool
April 26, 2019
A nice little reality of what it was like to love through the war as a child. Easy read, but makes you think.
May 13, 2019
An uplifting book that shows that even during the blitz this girl could keep her head up high, even through the unimaginable.
August 7, 2019
This series was what sparked my love for history which is nice because now I'm doing a degree in it
March 21, 2020
It was quite boring. I loved these when I was younger but yeah not now
September 18, 2020
Great book describes the events throughout ww2 through a child's eyes and helps you travel back in time
April 19, 2021
I remember that 10 year old me really enjoyed this book but I’m not sure how much I’d still enjoy it now
November 12, 2023
Very good 👍
March 22, 2024
It wasn't the story I was thinking it was going to be. It is a good story for the younger reader.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews