That Burning Summer

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.