Saturday 26 March 2016

A Heroine of World War One - Gladys Sandford



To be released on Monday 28th March 2016

NZ writer and Illustrator  Glyn Harper, illustrations by Jenny Cooper  Gladys Goes to War.

Puffin Books 2016  $19.99pb  32pp  ISBN 978 0 1435 0720 8  Themes: Ambulance drivers World War 1/ Feisty women

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Why have I never heard of Gladys Sandford before? She was a real person who was born in Australia but whose family moved to New Zealand when she was five. She was the most amazingly feisty young woman who at the beginning of World War 1 refused to be fobbed off by the War Office who didn’t want her services as an ambulance driver in London (just stay home and knit socks and balaclavas they said). But Gladys, now married to Lieutenant William Henning, managed to join him and spent the war in the UK and abroad in very active service. The rest of her life was full of excitement (and some sadness). Jenny Cooper’s vibrant pictures matched with the simple but clever text make this a book to proudly take its place with the growing number of picture books on this subject. If there was ever a story that stated so clearly Girls Can Do Anything this is it.

Jenny Cooper and Glyn Harper are the team who also gave us: Roly, the ANZAC donkey, Jim’s Letters and Le Quesnoy.

Year 2 up/ Age 6 up

***According to info on the net she looked exactly like this - blue eyed and golden haired...

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