Wordsworth’s Daffodils is a fitting reference and motif, revealing Sally’s delight in the rural landscape around her. Candy Gourlay introduces Wild Song, her companion novel to Bone Talk, in which Luki and Samkad leave their home in the Philippines for America. When they discover a wounded German airman they decide to hide him to keep him safe from Mr Scarcross, the vengeful and embittered farmer with whom Sally lives. There was just the right amount of choice to suit everyone without being overwhelming and I received comments from parents and staff about the quality of books offered compared to previous sales which have always been based around current crazes and well known celebrity authors.

An interesting and nostalgic look at sheep farmers and countryside history, as well as quite a page turner for this young audience. Into this world his new friend Sally, an evacuee who lives on the neighbouring farm, appears like a breath of fresh air, full of jokes, chat and bravado, she is the type of child that others follow. Within a dozen pages, I'd been won over, and found myself totally engrossed in a rattling story with an endearing pair of main characters. Part of Sally's appeal as a character is her dialogue - a young Liverpudlian, Tulloch captures her immense energy for life and fierce integrity through her dialogue, rich with her northern accent.

The characters are a delight, especially the determined and resilient, if headstrong, Sally, whose Geordie accent is lovingly rendered, and the Lake District setting is vividly portrayed.

Set in the Lake District in 1940 Cuckoo Summer is a beautiful novel of friendship, secrets, loyalty and childhood innocence, bringing to life both the people and the landscape of fells and tarns of the author’s beloved Lakeland. Against all odds, the navigator escapes by parachute, landing in a remote dale where he is discovered by local boy, Tommy, and evacuee, Sally.In the beginning, Tommy, our narrator, explains Sally’s dialect to us, when necessary, offering definitions for Geordie vocabulary which might be unfamiliar. His father is missing in action, and his best friend, Sally, is a mischievous and fearless evacuee from Tyneside. This results in a chain of events that expose the children to danger and uncover secrets about Sally’s past. I grew fond of some of the characters and think that Silent Simon who works on the Scarcross farm deserves a story of his own.

Tulloch's use of the dialects spoken by Tommy and Sally is fascinating (particularly the numbers used for counting sheep) and the novel is full of beautiful descriptions of nature, including the eponymous cuckoo. Cuckoo Summer is a perfect book to share alongside WWII topics, and it will be loved by any child looking for an immersive story of adventure and friendship.I’m pretty sure that this is the only children’s novel that mentions the hidden treasure of betony, lady’s bedstraw and hare’s-foot clover. Tommy knows that Sally’s a bit wild and her stories of her past rather unreliable, but what is she hiding?