The Valley of Lost Secrets

Reviewed By  Ian Banks       April 24, 2021

 

Author  Lesley Parr.

Distributor:      Bloomsbury Children's Books
ISBN:                 978-1526620521
Publisher:         Bloomsbury Children's Books
Release Date:   March 2021  

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The Valley of Lost Secrets is a war time children’s adventure set in Wales at the commencement of the British involvement in World War II. Children were evacuated into the country to be safe, but often the trauma that was caused to the children, being separated from their family, the resentment of the villagers and the generally bullying of the children of the Village, was far from a good outcome.

In her debut novel The Valley of Lost Secrets, Lesley Parr captures the sadness, the unhappiness and the anger that many must have felt as their world was turned upside down.  Jimmy and his young brother Ronnie are evacuated to a small mining Village in Wales where they are cared for by Mr and Mrs Thomas. The Village is so different to London: here it is green and open and the air smells very different. Jimmy finds this disturbing while Ronnie, who is a little bit younger, seems to settle into his new life considerably better.

Lonely and  feeling very unhappy, trusting no one, Jimmy discovers a skull lodged in a tree which gives him the creeps, but as the days go on and friendships form and break up, Jimmy becomes more and more determined to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the skull.

The more determined he becomes to find out how a skull come to be hidden in a tree, the more danger he places himself and Ronnie in, and it is not until a most terrible event occurs within the town, the truth can finally be discovered.

 Beautifully written with a lovely continuity The Valley Of Lost Secrets is a rich, emotional, well researched story based in history, which provides a depth of authenticity to the canvas of life in a small town and the confrontational changes so many had to learn to manage, children and adults alike, during the long years of World War II.