Midwinter Burning by Tanya Landman

Midwinter Burning is everything I love about children’s literature: a powerful historical story. a hero who has much to learn about life, adults who recognise and support a child in need, devoted friendship, and a wonderfully magical time-slip adventure. Tanya Landman is a master at weaving an engaging and heart-warming story that holds readers fast.

Midwinter Burning starts much like many evacuee stories. Alfie Wright is being sent to a farm in rural Devon. Without a father and never really fitting in, he always felt more like Alife Wrong than Alfie Wright. Nobody ever wanted him. However, once he arrives in Devon, he is fortunate to be placed with Aunt Bell – a gentle woman who seems to understand this charming boy and wants to help him find himself. Her kindess is healing for Alfie. He experiences so many firsts and feels a connection with Mother Nature in the sea air. He learns where food comes from, how to climb a tree and how to care for the chickens and other animals on the farm. Each night he is exhausted but feels so free.

Alfie has always had a big imagination but when he starts to see a strange Stone Age boy roaming the land near the farm, he wonders if he’s seen a ghost or if there’s something wrong with him. His new friend, Smidge, isn’t like other children. There’s something about him Alfie can’t quite put his finger on. Does he have something to do with the stone circle on the cliffs? Alfie feels drawn to these stones – there is something magical about them. It could be the approach of the Midwinter Burning – a traditional ritual, ancient and mysterious. Stories of sacrifice and death tell Alfie it isn’t a place to be trifled with.

Caught between two world, Alfie and Smidge build a friendship on trust and a shared love of the land. Alfie learns there is more to the ancient ritual than just tradition and discovers what sacrifice really means. The animals on the farm are sacrificed to feed the village, Jesus from the school nativity play will go on to sacrifice himself for mankind, soldiers are sacrificing their lives for their country – what will Alfie sacrifice for his friend and this new life he loves?

Midwinter Burning would be an excellent follow-on book from Sophie Kirtley’s The Wild Way Home. A slightly more difficult read with deeper focus on ritual, war and loss, readers will be pulled into the magic of the stones and the power of true friendship.

Thank you to Walker Books for this stunning book!

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