“You’ve experienced a variety of bedtime stories, I’m certain. Here’s one such part of “A Place to Hang the Moon” that made me smile… I love beautifully written books when you read a sentence, or a paragraph and it makes you stop and absorb the beauty of it. Anne picks “A Little Princess,” and by so doing, she stole my heart! (This is the edition I had as a child…and still have!)

When the siblings are evacuated from their London home, they each pick one book to bring with them. The fact that “A Little Princess” plays an important role in “A Place to Hang the Moon,” made me love this story even more. I adored this book and read it multiple times. If I had to pick one book that defined my childhood reading, it would be “A Little Princess,” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of my favorite parts of this book was the nostalgia it brought to me, as it mentions many of my beloved childhood books, such as “Anne of Green Gables,” “Winnie the Pooh,” “The Wind in the Willows,” “The Call of the Wild,” “The Story of Ferdinand” and most importantly, “A Little Princess.” Walking into that library felt like something close to home. When they find themselves in an unknown town, feeling lost and uncertain, they stumble across the village lending library. This whole book is something truly special! The relationship between these siblings is heartwarming and something truly special. But their difficult journey is not without joy. Our reader hearts will break over and over for these siblings as they try to find someone to love them. They are searching for a person who will love them so much that they think they “hung the moon.” The search for this person and this home, will not be easy.

William, Edmund and Anna are searching for a home. “William, Edmund and Anna knew, somewhere deep in the place where we know things that we cannot say aloud, that they had never lived in the sort of home one reads about in stories – one of warmth and affection and certainty in the knowledge that someone believes you hung the moon.” If you’re looking for a book to both tug at your heartstrings and make you smile, “A Place the Hang the Moon,” by Kate Albus is the one for you! This delightful novel is chock full of sweetness, love and nostalgia. Just as they start to think they’ll never find someone to take care of them, they discover love is often found in the most unexpected of places. The siblings find themselves bouncing from one home after another. Could this be a way to find themselves a guardian? With a rather preposterous plan in place, the children join the evacuation. World War II is gearing up and evacuations of children from London to the countryside are beginning. They have money, but no one to take care of them. William, Edmund and Anna are orphans at a most inconvenient time.

A place to hang the moon by kate albus