A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (review)

Albus, Kate A Place to Hang the Moon. Ferguson/Holiday House, 2021 [320p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780823447053 $17.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 4-7

When the grandmother of William, Edmund, and Anna Pearce dies, the siblings are left with an inheritance but no guardian, and 1940 London is hardly the place to go looking for anyone to adopt three children. They evacuate to the countryside, cautioned by their grandmother's solicitor not to mention anything about an inheritance unless all three agree they've found a worthy family. The first family seems promising, until the sons begin to bully the Pearce boys, and hot-headed Edmund is having none of that. The second family, comprising a worn-out mother and a brood of neglected children, is more interested in the Pearces' ration allotments and free labor than in caregiving. In the background of their tribulations stands the local librarian, Mrs. Müller, who understands that they need the refuge her library can provide and, as a village outlier suspected of having married a Nazi, also understands what it means to live on the margin. It doesn't take much guessing to know that Mrs. Müller's home will be their home, but it's in the often crisp, often cozy detailing and the ever-so-British turns of phrase ("For June of 1940 was, even for those who had not recently become orphans, a time of most uncertain futures") that this novel claims a place among the most kid-pleasing orphan stories. The loyal bonds among the Pearce siblings and Mrs. Müller's bottomless well of patience, ingenuity, and perfectly tailored reading lists will have readers aching to swap their own messier families, however briefly, for the Pearces' home and hygge. The characters' reading lists are included.