Until the Road Ends is the eagerly awaited new novel from the bestselling author of When the Sky Falls: The Times Children’s Book of the Year, winner of a Books Are My Bag Readers Award, the British Book Award for Children’s Fiction and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

When Peggy saves a stray dog from near-death, a beautiful friendship begins. Peggy and Beau are inseparable: the only thing that can ever come between them is war. Peggy is evacuated to the safety of the coast, but Beau is left behind in the city, where he becomes the most extraordinary and unlikely of war heroes.

Night after night, as bombs rain down and communities are destroyed, Beau searches the streets, saving countless families. But then disaster strikes, changing Peggy’s life forever. With her parents killed, both she and Beau are left alone, hundreds of miles apart. But Beau has a plan to reunite them at long last . . .

Until the Road Ends is a powerful, heartfelt book about a young girl, her dog Beau, and the devastation that war brings.

After young Peggy saves a stray dog from being run over by a truck she takes him home and is allowed to keep him, calling him Beau, short for beautiful. The two build a loving friendship and Beau will do anything for his new owner who he loves immensely. Unfortunately, the Second World War is looming and Peggy and her brother Wilf are sent to the coast to live with their aunt, their pets, Beau and Wilf’s cat Mabel are left behind with their parents.

Beau becomes very useful in the search for people trapped under rubble and he helps Peggy’s father who is an air raid warden find survivors, but it isn’t long before tragedy strikes, and the two best friends need each other more than ever before but they are miles apart.

Until the Road Ends is a book that will have you laughing and crying. It is touching and heart-warming, as well as heart-breaking too. It shows the real horrors and the effects on the people that World War Two had and will give children an understanding of how people lived during those times.

The book is written in the third person so you not only get inside Peggy’s head you also get to read about Beau and a few other animals’ thoughts and feelings too. I love Beau, he is a spectacular character and I love how well author Phil Earle has written his doggish thoughts, I just wanted to give him a big cuddle. I also love the humour that came from Mabel the cat and Bomber the pigeon.

Overall, this is a spectacular book that had me gripped the whole way through. It is one of those books that you want to rush through and savour at the same time. A truly amazing and glorious read.

Born and raised in the north of England, Phil Earle is the author of numerous acclaimed, award-winning books for children and teenagers. He has worked as a carer, a dramatherapist, a bookseller and a publisher, and loves talking at schools and festivals around the world. His novel When The Sky Falls won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award and the British Book Award for Children’s Fiction. He lives on the side of a very steep hill with his wife, their five children and two dogs.