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My Best Friend the Evacuee
Join two best friends as history is made in 1941.
Teddy and Harriet have been joined at the hip for as long as they can remember - but then the WAR started. Teddy is EVACUATED all the way across the ocean to the United States and Harriet is left in London to face the BLITZ! The pair promise to write to each other as often as they can, but soon Teddy is swept up in his new life, while Harriet feels lonely and frightened whenever the sirens begin to howl...
Commemorating eighty years since the start of World War Two, My Best Friend the Evacuee is an exciting read for children aged 6+, packed with fascinating historical details.
116 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Sally Morgan
414 books137 followersSally Morgan is recognised as one of Australia's best known Aboriginal artists and writers. She is one of a number of successful urban Aboriginal artists.
Sally was born in Perth in 1951, the eldest of five children. As a child she found school difficult because of questions from other students about her appearance and family background. She understood from her mother that she and her family were from India. However, when Sally was fifteen she learnt that she and her sister were in fact of Aboriginal descent, from the Palku people of the Pilbara.
This experience of her hidden origins, and subsequent quest for identity, was the stimulus for her first book My Place published in 1987. It tells the story of her self discovery through reconnection with her Aboriginal culture and community. The book was an immediate success and has since sold over half a million copies in Australia. It has also been published in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Her second book Wanamurraganya was published in 1989. It is the biography of her grandfather, Jack McPhee. She has also written five books for children.
As well as writing, Sally Morgan has established an international reputation as an artist. She has works in numerous private and public collections in Australia and the United States, including the Australian National Gallery and the Dobell Foundation collection. Her work is particularly popular in the United States. Her work as an artist is excellently described and illustrated in the book Art of Sally Morgan.
She has received many awards, including from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. As a part of the celebration in 1993 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, her print Outback was selected by international art historians as one of 30 paintings and sculptures for reproduction on a stamp representing an article of the Declaration.
My Place remains her most influential work, not only because of its very wide popularity but also because it provided a new model for other writers, particularly those of indigenous background.
She is currently Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and Arts at The University of Western Australia.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Sally was born in Perth in 1951, the eldest of five children. As a child she found school difficult because of questions from other students about her appearance and family background. She understood from her mother that she and her family were from India. However, when Sally was fifteen she learnt that she and her sister were in fact of Aboriginal descent, from the Palku people of the Pilbara.
This experience of her hidden origins, and subsequent quest for identity, was the stimulus for her first book My Place published in 1987. It tells the story of her self discovery through reconnection with her Aboriginal culture and community. The book was an immediate success and has since sold over half a million copies in Australia. It has also been published in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Her second book Wanamurraganya was published in 1989. It is the biography of her grandfather, Jack McPhee. She has also written five books for children.
As well as writing, Sally Morgan has established an international reputation as an artist. She has works in numerous private and public collections in Australia and the United States, including the Australian National Gallery and the Dobell Foundation collection. Her work is particularly popular in the United States. Her work as an artist is excellently described and illustrated in the book Art of Sally Morgan.
She has received many awards, including from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. As a part of the celebration in 1993 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, her print Outback was selected by international art historians as one of 30 paintings and sculptures for reproduction on a stamp representing an article of the Declaration.
My Place remains her most influential work, not only because of its very wide popularity but also because it provided a new model for other writers, particularly those of indigenous background.
She is currently Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and Arts at The University of Western Australia.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 20, 2019
Young readers can follow two friends as they experience the first year and a half of World War II in completely different circumstances in this epistolary chapter book and discover just what it was like for kids at that time.
Londoners Harriet Hale, 11, and Teddy (Edward) Wilson, 10, have always been best friends and comic book lovers. In fact, they have even been working on their own comic book for a while now, working on it inside the Anderson shelter in Harriet's backyard. But Teddy has a secret and Harriet doesn't find out what it is until she receives a letter on 1st August 1940 and learns that her best friend has been evacuated to America. What a blow! Not only that, but he took Harriet's newest Beano comic book with him.
Meanwhile, Harriet is left in London, and although most of the other kids there have been evacuated to the countryside, Harriet is staying home with her mum. Soon, Harriet and Teddy begin corresponding with each other and their letter exchange is how readers learn what is going on in their lives.
Remaining in London means that Harriet must contend with the fear that Hitler is getting ready to invade the England. And that means that he has already begun to heavily boob London, even Buckingham Palace takes a hit. But for Harriet, the scariest is when the Underground shelter she and her mum are in takes a direct hit, and people begin stampeding out of the shelter, scaring her enough that for a while she refuses to shelter in the Underground whenever the air raid sirens go off.
For Teddy, life in Dayton, Ohio with the Mayer family isn't very eventful, but there is plenty to eat and no fear of invasion or bombs. There is also baseball, and while it's not cricket, it's still kind of fun for him. But even though the Mayer family really likes him, Teddy can't help but feel homesick. At first he believed he would be home by Christmas, but when that didn't happen the time stretched out longer and longer, until finally in 1945, he can return home.
The aren't many chapter books written about World War II, so I'm always curious to read one when I find it. I found My Best Friend: The Evacuee to be chock full of factual information and presented in such a way that an 11 year old would experience what is happening around them. Beside that direct hit on the Underground station where Harriet was, readers will learn how Teddy was able to be evacuated to America, and why that program had to be stopped when one of the ships was torpedoed in the Atlantic by a German submarine.
Sally Morgan has really captured the intensity of Harriet's fear and Teddy's homesickness, and has packed this story with historical facts that really make it an interesting work. It is a story that was written to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of WWII this year, and it is an excellent work for introducing young readers to this dark period on two different home fronts, without graphic descriptions. I like that Morgan pays homage to the women who did so much for the war effort, include Harriet's Aunt Lucy, who loves puzzles and is clearly working at code breaking at Bletchley, and her sister who may or may not be a land girl, but is definitely working on a farm.
There is lots of back matter, including a WWII timeline, and brief bios of relevant people from history who are mentioned in this book.
My Best Friend: The Evacuee is an excellent addition to WWII books for young readers.
This book is recommended for 7+
This book was sent to me by the author, Sally Morgan
Londoners Harriet Hale, 11, and Teddy (Edward) Wilson, 10, have always been best friends and comic book lovers. In fact, they have even been working on their own comic book for a while now, working on it inside the Anderson shelter in Harriet's backyard. But Teddy has a secret and Harriet doesn't find out what it is until she receives a letter on 1st August 1940 and learns that her best friend has been evacuated to America. What a blow! Not only that, but he took Harriet's newest Beano comic book with him.
Meanwhile, Harriet is left in London, and although most of the other kids there have been evacuated to the countryside, Harriet is staying home with her mum. Soon, Harriet and Teddy begin corresponding with each other and their letter exchange is how readers learn what is going on in their lives.
Remaining in London means that Harriet must contend with the fear that Hitler is getting ready to invade the England. And that means that he has already begun to heavily boob London, even Buckingham Palace takes a hit. But for Harriet, the scariest is when the Underground shelter she and her mum are in takes a direct hit, and people begin stampeding out of the shelter, scaring her enough that for a while she refuses to shelter in the Underground whenever the air raid sirens go off.
For Teddy, life in Dayton, Ohio with the Mayer family isn't very eventful, but there is plenty to eat and no fear of invasion or bombs. There is also baseball, and while it's not cricket, it's still kind of fun for him. But even though the Mayer family really likes him, Teddy can't help but feel homesick. At first he believed he would be home by Christmas, but when that didn't happen the time stretched out longer and longer, until finally in 1945, he can return home.
The aren't many chapter books written about World War II, so I'm always curious to read one when I find it. I found My Best Friend: The Evacuee to be chock full of factual information and presented in such a way that an 11 year old would experience what is happening around them. Beside that direct hit on the Underground station where Harriet was, readers will learn how Teddy was able to be evacuated to America, and why that program had to be stopped when one of the ships was torpedoed in the Atlantic by a German submarine.
Sally Morgan has really captured the intensity of Harriet's fear and Teddy's homesickness, and has packed this story with historical facts that really make it an interesting work. It is a story that was written to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of WWII this year, and it is an excellent work for introducing young readers to this dark period on two different home fronts, without graphic descriptions. I like that Morgan pays homage to the women who did so much for the war effort, include Harriet's Aunt Lucy, who loves puzzles and is clearly working at code breaking at Bletchley, and her sister who may or may not be a land girl, but is definitely working on a farm.
There is lots of back matter, including a WWII timeline, and brief bios of relevant people from history who are mentioned in this book.
My Best Friend: The Evacuee is an excellent addition to WWII books for young readers.
This book is recommended for 7+
This book was sent to me by the author, Sally Morgan
October 15, 2023
I read this book with my class of Year 4 children every year when we do a history project on WW2. It provides the perfect companion to the history as it gives so much detail about London during the war and the experience of children. Lots of accurate facts in our English lessons back up what we are learning about in history.
A bonus is that the fact that it is written as a series of letters adds variety to the canon of books we read with the children in our school. I doubt whether many younger children would be able to read it with complete understanding without the support of an adult explaining things to them, though,
A slight disappointment is that it does not have much of a plot - the story just peters out towards the end. In fact, on occasion when I've read it with a class and we haven't finished it before the next topic starts, none of the children are worried that they haven't read the end. In contrast, when we read Harry Potter or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the children are full of questions and comments and instantly want to read the next book. When we finish The Sleeping Sword by Michael Morpurgo there are actual gasps of surprise and excitement.
A bonus is that the fact that it is written as a series of letters adds variety to the canon of books we read with the children in our school. I doubt whether many younger children would be able to read it with complete understanding without the support of an adult explaining things to them, though,
A slight disappointment is that it does not have much of a plot - the story just peters out towards the end. In fact, on occasion when I've read it with a class and we haven't finished it before the next topic starts, none of the children are worried that they haven't read the end. In contrast, when we read Harry Potter or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the children are full of questions and comments and instantly want to read the next book. When we finish The Sleeping Sword by Michael Morpurgo there are actual gasps of surprise and excitement.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews