Under the London Sky
London, September 1940. Deep in the Underground, taking shelter from the bombs, four strangers meet.
Fourteen-year-old Ella walks with a limp. Some days, she feels like the world is staring at her. Other days, as if she's invisible. Jack has lost everything. Now he just wants to make money out of the chaos. Quinn is fifteen, fancy and fearless. She’s run away from home with a bag of family jewels and big ideas about changing the world. And then there’s Sebastian, Quinn’s older brother. He used to be her hero.
Until he became a traitor. The war brought them together. Will it also tear them apart?
Translated by Michele Hutchison
Cover by David Dean
Rock the Boat, 2025
Ages: 12+
Reviews
Anyone interested in the Blitz will come away the wiser. But it's Woltz's ability to evoke the passions and pathos of a teenage girl that makes this war story so persuasive.
While the author doesn’t sugarcoat the grim physical and psychological effects of war, she lightens the darkness with banter, romance, and acts of kindness. Historical photos help bring the setting to life. Touching and ultimately hopeful.
Gripping, realistic, and surprisingly hopeful, offering glimmers of life’s possibilities once class and economic differences have been erased—if only the characters can survive the war.
This captivating novel vividly describes the details of a wartime city. Best suited to older readers, it's a sometimes sad story of friendship and growing up.
The Blitz is conveyed with such urgent realism, wonderful depth and great drama.
Dutch author Woltz vividly reimagines the horror of the London Blitz in this extraordinarily atmospheric coming-of-age novel. Four very different teenagers shelter in the underground tunnels every night, sharing their inner secrets and dreams, but the drive to survive tests their loyalty.
Powerful… The novel’s climax is genuinely moving… This novel is pitched slightly older than many Blitz stories and is definitely more suitable for Key Stage 3 than Key Stage 2, so might offer something more advanced for readers who have enjoyed other WW2 novels.
Readers will ... become invested in each character’s journey and in the electric, terrifying yet somehow hopeful, recreation of the Blitz that Woltz presents us with.
An excellent teen war read… It really gives you an appreciation for life at that time and where some people found themselves sleeping during the bombing raids. Very happy to recommend!
A fabulous title for [YA] readers, set during the Blitz and perfect for those who are looking for a read that will keep them spellbound ... a powerful exploration of what it was like to live through that time – one that has been written with enormous empathy and historical accuracy and one that I read in pretty much one sitting.
Woltz's achievement is significant.