Our castle by the sea / Lucy Strange.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

* "A plot summary can only hint at the satisfaction of reading this tightly interwoven story with its haunting setting and memorable characters." -Booklist (starred review)

In this haunting and compelling follow-up to the instant classic The Secret of Nightingale Wood . Lucy Strange takes a seafaring myth and grounds it in the stark reality of World War II.

Growing up in a lighthouse, 11-year-old Pet's world has been one of storms, secret tunnels, and stories about sea monsters. But now the country is at war and the clifftops are a terrifying battleground. Pet will need to muster all her bravery to uncover why her family is being torn apart.

This is the story of a girl who is afraid and unnoticed. A girl who freezes with fear at the enemy planes ripping through the skies overheard. A girl who is somehow destined to become part of the strange, ancient legend of the Daughters of Stone.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In this WWII thriller, Strange (The Secret of Nightingale Wood) crafts an evocative portrait of wartime suspicion and intrigue. Narrator Petra (Pet) lives with her older sister Mags, and her English Pa and German Mutti in a lighthouse cottage on England's South East coast-a lighthouse they must paint camouflage green as Britain faces imminent war. In 1939, local authorities drag Pet's beloved Mutti, classified as an "enemy alien" because of her German ancestry, into a tribunal to investigate her loyalties. The authorities rule to intern her indefinitely "as a matter of national security." Divided into three parts, the narrative expertly reveals a web of rumors, doubt, prejudice, and mistrust even within Pet's own family through unraveling secrets about Pet's parents' wedding, Mags's relationship with a local boy, a trip to Dunkirk, and their Pa's charts and logbooks, seized for evidence by the police. Strange seamlessly blends a local legend, of four girls turned into ancient standing stones on the lighthouse's clifftop, with the larger story. A standout historical novel with a memorable protagonist, strongly sketched setting, and a compelling, twisty plot. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

It's 1939, and the English coastal community where 12-year-old Pet lives has turned suspicious and hostile toward Mutti, her German-born mother, who moved to England in 1924 and married Pa, the lighthouse keeper. A tribunal sends Mutti to an internment camp as an enemy alien, leaving Pet, her older sister, Magda, and their father bereft. Meanwhile, a German plane has crashed into a nearby field, a traitorous local is cutting phone lines, and Magda is clearly hiding something from her family. Pet plans to uncover her sister's secret and also to prove her mother's innocence. When small boats are needed to rescue English troops at Dunkirk, Pa and Magda answer the call, but only one returns. Loss follows loss, but eventually the tide turns. A plot summary can only hint at the satisfaction of reading this tightly woven story with its haunting setting and memorable characters. Pet grows from a frightened child to a fiercely determined and ultimately brave individual who channels her anger with intelligence and figures out whom to trust in her suddenly dangerous world. The author of The Secret of Nightingale Wood (2017), Strange uses metaphor deftly and creates chapter endings that leave readers wanting more. A richly atmospheric historical novel.--Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2019 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Petras castle on the southeast coast of England is the lighthouse Pa tends, a place of an idyllic childhood for her until World War II begins. Then Pets German mother is interned as an enemy alienonly the first of many upsets and mysteries for Pet. Where is her older sister going so early in the mornings? Is it the local sandbar, or the legendary Wyrm, or a German U-boat she saw in Dragon Bay? What is the light shes seen flashing in the fields? And why is Pa so grim, so sad, as he heads off in their boat for Dunkirk? Fearful Pet feels she has a whole shoal of secrets, writhing in her mind like silvery fish caught in a net as events tighten around her. This novel is stuffed with family and wartime secrets, coincidences, improbabilities, and high drama. Its historical fiction, but reads much like an old-fashioned detective adventure, complete with a secret smugglers tunnel and attempted murder. Vivid writing and an intense, intrepid heroine provide its substance and charge, as timid Pet grows to defeat her fears and become a person of strength, courage, and valiant resistance. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

An English girl whose mother is German is ensnared by her neighbors' bigotry and by apparent treason at the onset of World War II.Twelve-year-old Petra lives in a lighthouse on the coast of England, so close to Europe that she can see right across to France on a clear day. When the war begins, some of the villagersher neighbors for her entire lifebehave abominably to Petra's family. Her German-born mother is accused of treason and sent to an internment camp, and though Petra is confident of Mutti's innocence, someone has been sending state secrets to the Nazis. Could it be that Petra's nearest and dearest aren't what they seem? No one in her family is acting normally. The stakes seem to rise slowly, coming to a breaking point as Petra's personal tragedies intertwine with the grim reality of the Dunkirk evacuation. The (historically accurate) increasing maltreatment of the town's German-British and Italian-British families increases Petra's sense of dislocation in her previously cozy village setting (characters are all white). Strange's deft hand with the had-I-but-known flavor of foreshadowing maintains a beautifully eerie, slightly gothic tone (occasionally at the expense of a believable 12-year-old voice).The slow dismantling of Petra's faith in her loved ones adds a delicious instability to the growing unease of this WWII thriller. (Historical fiction. 11-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.