Introduction

A Place to Hang the Moon is a debut middle grade historical fiction book by Kate Albus. It was published in 2021 by Margaret Ferguson Books. Albus used to be a research psychologist but stepped away from this career and began writing fiction. Her previous professional experience lends itself to the rich detail of her characters’ psychological workings. The novel follows the English siblings William, Edmund, and Anna Pearce after the death of their grandmother in 1940, as they are evacuated from London for safety and to search for a new guardian. The book is a historical World War II (WWII) novel with a thematic focus on coming of age. The children struggle with grief, war, and violence while also being subjected to numerous abuses from their foster families. Throughout it all, the three siblings support and love each other. The novel asks questions about everything from what constitutes family to how and why tiers of social prejudice are reinforced in difficult times.

The novel has been selected for many awards, accolades, and best-of lists, including the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, Kids Indie Next List, ALSC Notable Children’s Book, CCBC Choice, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice List.

Albus’s second book, Nothing Else but Miracles, is another middle grade World War II-era book about three siblings in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It is set to release in 2023.

This study guide refers to the 2021 Margaret Ferguson Books hardback edition of A Place to Hang the Moon.

Content Warning: The source text contains neglect and emotional abuse of children throughout, as well as one instance of physical abuse. There is one graphic scene of violence against animals.

Plot Summary

In London in June of 1940, 12-year-old William, 11-year-old Edmund, and 9-year-old Anna attend the funeral of their grandmother and guardian. William interfaces with the guests while the other two pursue their own interests. None of them know why people are saying nice things about their grandmother, who was a mean woman.

Because their parents died seven years ago, they are now worried about their future guardian. They are fond of their housekeeper, Miss Collins, and wish she could be their mother. However, Miss Collins is too elderly to take responsibility for them. Their grandmother’s solicitor, Mr. Engersoll, says their best chance at being adopted in wartime is to evacuate to a northern village with other London schoolchildren and endear themselves to their foster family so much that they will want to adopt all three when they reveal their grandmother’s death.

The children and Miss Collins are highly skeptical, but there are no better options. They evacuate with St. Michaels school, where they meet the severe and strict Miss Carr and the kindly Mrs. Warren. Edmund gets motion sick on the train ride north, which earns Miss Carr’s animosity.

When they and the other evacuated children arrive in a northern English village, the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) puts them in a room. Townspeople mill through the children deciding who they want to foster. Many people pass up the siblings, either not wanting three children or not wanting boys. A couple, Mr. and Mrs. Forrester, ask Anna if she’ll leave her siblings, but when she says no, they begrudgingly agree to foster all three. That night at dinner, the Forrester twins—Jack and Simon—begin to express distaste for the evacuees. Mr. and Mrs. Forrester half-heartedly scold them.

The next day, the siblings attend school with Mrs. Warren. After school, they happily visit a library. Mrs. Müller, the librarian, is kind and engaging, but Mrs. Forrester is inexplicably cool toward her. After school, Edmund finds that the twins stole all his candy. He tries to tell Mrs. Forrester, but she dismisses him.

The children get to know Mrs. Müller more over the next weeks and grow fonder of her, though they discover that the townspeople do not like her. Things with the Forresters grow worse as the twins harass and bully the Pearce children. Edmund hides a dead snake in their bed for revenge. Several days later, the school is graffitied with the word “VACKIES,” an offensive nickname for evacuee, in black paint. The twins hide a black paint can in Edmund’s things to frame him, and the siblings are subsequently kicked out of the Forresters’ house.

Miss Carr, annoyed, finds them a new billet with Mrs. Griffith, a poor and embittered woman with a house that is falling apart and four kids of her own. London continues to be bombed and Mrs. Warren leaves when her husband is killed fighting in the war, leaving the severe Miss Carr as the children’s teacher. As winter approaches, the kids get increasingly cold and hungry, only finding reprieve with Mrs. Müller. They help Mrs. Griffith where they can, but she treats them as an inconvenience and an annoyance.

After a winter clothing swap, Anna gets nits. The children are fearful of Mrs. Griffith’s reaction. Mrs. Müller, sensing this, removes the nits and tells them what to do with their blankets. As she does this, she tells them that the town dislikes her because she married a German man who disappeared back to Germany when the war began and has not been heard from since.

On Christmas Eve, the children see that Mrs. Griffith has instructed her daughter to tear up their books for the outside toilet, called the petty. This leads to an altercation in which she hits Edmund across the face and the children leave the house.

They perform a Nativity Play with the evacuees, fearful about their future. When Mrs. Müller sees Edmund’s welt, she demands that they return home with her. Miss Carr initially protests, but Mrs. Müller is determined. The children have a warm night’s sleep in her cozy cottage for the first time in months. The next day, she gives them humble Christmas gifts.

In February, Mrs. Müller receives word that her husband died in Berlin. The children comfort her and assure her she has done nothing wrong. Several days later, she discovers that William’s birthday passed. She throws him a late birthday party. Because of their impersonal upbringing, this is the best birthday he has ever had.

When Edmund has the idea to plant an evacuees’ victory garden, Mrs. Müller encourages him to ask Miss Carr for permission while she asks the city council. They each get permission, and Miss Carr begins to think differently of Edmund. The garden is a success and endears the village to the evacuees.

Mrs. Müller and the children become extremely close. They overhear her saying she believes they can “hang the moon” if they want to and take it as a sign that she is their rightful mother. They reveal the truth of their grandmother’s death to her and ask her to adopt them. She tearfully and gratefully agrees, as they have helped her as much as she has them.