Adult/High School-Bobby, an evacuee of blitz-plagued London, arrives in Devon, England, and meets the five boys of the title (all of whom were born within weeks of one another and make a formidable group). When the enigmatic Bee King arrives in the small village, the boys come under his influence and the novel veers into an unexpected if somewhat abrupt ending. Jackson so successfully brings the seriocomic story of the youngsters and the village to life that when the war enters the picture, readers may be somewhat surprised to remember when the action takes place. The narrative is a series of moments or scenes, almost short stories that have more in common with the kind of plot development used in films than standard prose fiction. Five Boys is like Hope and Glory, the World War II film about a London family during the Blitz, or even the TV series Northern Exposure. The writing is funny and sad, bittersweet and compassionate. Bobby's homesickness and "debilitating terror" are so evocative as to be almost painful to read. Jackson has a gift for conveying, in a few short paragraphs, whole realms of small but important truths about life and about what even sheltered daily life is like during a time of great struggle and violence. This humorous and beautifully written period piece may cast a deeper understanding of the world today.-Jane Halsall, McHenry Public Library District, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Jackson (The Underground Man, 1997) offers a nostalgic, tone-perfect evocation of life in an English village during WWII. When the Blitz is on and a London boy named Bobby is evacuated (alone) to Devon, it's almost as though he's been sent to the farthest reaches of the earth. Put up in a house with the fidgety Miss Minter, who lives alone and scarcely knows what to do with him, he all but dies of homesickness-until he's sent to school and meets the five boys (so called because they band together, having been born in a single autumn). The meeting is bad, since Bobby gets pummeled, tricked, and tortured-he's even fed worms-but the tide turns when one of the five reveals his secret fascination with distant London, and the group of friends grows to six. But Miss Minter's house is on the land being evacuated for the use of the military in preparation for D-day: and Bobby disappears from the book, going with Miss Minter to an outlying farm. Even so, he's given us a fine start into the remainder of these loosely connected sketches, anecdotes, and tales, having introduced us handsomely to villagers including the reclusive Captain, maker of model ships; the hefty postmistress, Miss Pye, whom he secretly lusts for; the ne'er-do-well Howard Kent; the parents of the five boys; even the stoically arthritic Reverend Bentley. Things change subtly as Americans appear, preparing to invade Europe, and farms become haunted oases on artillery proving grounds. The war will end, but not the story: among other strange, notable, and ordinary things, a man called the Bee King will arrive and, pied-piperlike, enchant the five boys, even lure them away-or seem to-before bringing forth a revelation that may puzzle but will also captivate. Garrison Keillor mixed with Sherwood Anderson, Our Town, and Under Milkwood: a blending destined to move and please all but the meanest of souls. Wonderful.

In his second novel, following The Underground Man(1997), Jackson tracks young Bobby as he is evacuated from London during World War II and billeted with the elderly Miss Minter in South Devon. Deeply homesick, he is somewhat baffled by Miss Minter's odd attempts to keep him continuously busy: she has him sort huge jars of peas and beans. Then he is set upon by the local gang of "five boys," who force him to swallow worms and worse. Bobby is finally able to ingratiate himself with one of them, Aldred, who suffers from an overactive thyroid and is obsessed with London. The six engage in a series of adventures including sneaking into the house of a suspected German spy (it turns out "the spy" uses his telescope to watch the local ladies at their keep-fit class). The story then shifts to the boys' fascination with a mysterious beekeeper who has a private agenda. Jackson's vivid, episodic novel boasts a charmingly quirky cast of characters and subtly but surely plies its dark theme of retribution. Joanne Wilkinson.

In this funny, touching and highly original novel, a close-knit gang of five boys forms a prism that refracts the idiosyncrasies of WWII English life in a small village in Devon. Ostensibly, the story is about Bobby, a newcomer evacuated from London and the Blitz, who is terrorized and then befriended by the gang. But the real protagonist is the town itself and its unusual denizens: Lillian Minter, the spinster who reluctantly takes Bobby in; the Captain, who spends his days fashioning models of ships wrecked off the Devon coast and, eventually, another newcomer, an apiarist known only as "the Bee King," who introduces the boys to "the harem in the hive." These eccentric characters, and many others, are decisively etched, though the eponymous quintet are strangely undeveloped; only one, Aldred Crouch, emerges from their collective presence. The narrative is episodic, more an integrated collection of seriocomic short stories than a novel with dramatic unity, but these vignettes are a testament to Jackson's writerly skill and imagination. Highly evocative of both time and place, the novel is about the bizarre ways the war affected those left at home and how it changed virtually everything about English life, particularly for the generation too young to serve. Jackson, whose previous book, The Underground Man, was shortlisted for the Booker, has a tender, observant eye and a quirky imagination, qualities that bring this work rare luminosity and insight. (June 4) Forecast: Sales could benefit from Jackson's familiarity to American audiences as a former member of the British bands the Screaming Adbabs and the Dinner Ladies. Booksellers can reference John Boorman's movie, Hope and Glory, for a similar evocation of time and place. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved