Picture Books ANZACS

Australian Writer and NZ Illustrator  Gordon Winch, illustrated by Harriet Bailey The Last ANZAC  New Frontier Publishing 2015  $29.00hb 32pp  ISBN 978 1 9250 5929 8  Themes: Gallipoli/ Old soldiers/ World War I 1914-1918

Alec Campbell, who died in 2002, was the very last of the ANZACs. He had lied about his age in order to enlist but after only six weeks in the trenches, he was invalided out and sent home, a Gallipoli veteran at only 17 years old and with a lifetime ahead of him. The story is told in with the structure of a young boy visiting Alec in his Tasmanian home the year before he died. I would have liked to have known more about the boy – how he got into this situation, what he really felt about it. Just a sentence would have done it. As it is he is really just used as a vehicle for the sort of questions boys and girls would be likely to ask and does, in my opinion, give it  all a slightly static Q & A feel. But the illustrations bring the story to life and emphasize, like Bob Kerr’s images in Best Mates  (Philippa Werry New Holland 2014) the extreme youth of most of the soldiers making them look in places like the naughty schoolboys they mostly were until such a short time before. This is a handsome and painstakingly created publication  - a large square book that is designed to withstand the handling and use it will get.      

Year 2 up/ Age 6 up  

Picture Books (for all ages)

Australian Writer & Illustrator

Mark Greenwood, illustrated by Frane Lessac

Midnight

Walker Books  2014  $29.99hb  32pp

ISBN 978 1 9219 7771 8

Themes:         ANZACS/ Charge at Beersheba/ Horses in wartime/ World War 1 1914-1918

 

Lieutenant Guy Haydon  loved his mare, Midnight from the time she was born. Together they went off to join one of the Australian Light Horse Regiments – regiments destined to take part in one of the last great cavalry charges at Beersheba in the Middle East in 1917.  Short, tense text  (sometimes reflecting the beating of the horses’ hooves) makes for dramatic reading aloud and the orange and brown illustrations mirror the desert sands.

This story is based on memories of the Haydon family who have bred horses, including Midnight, in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales since 1830.   

A poignant (hard to read aloud for horse lovers) and useful resource to add to the growing collection of books for ANZAC Day. Remember when we really had to scratch around to find anything on the topic? 

Year 2 up/ Age 6 up

Non-Fiction Anzac Day – The New Zealand Story

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NZ Writer 

Photos from various sources

Philippa Werry

Anzac Day – The New Zealand Story

New Holland Publishers 2013        $24.99pb   64 pages

ISBN 978 1 8696 6380 3

Themes:  ANZAC Day/ Gallipoli Campaign

In plenty of time for ANZAC Day 2013 the author has produced a carefully structured account of nearly all the details about ANZAC Day young readers (and their teachers) will want.  Interspersed with the ‘fact boxes’ are many examples of poems from well-known writers of the time – Rudyard Kipling, Laurence Binyon and Thomas Bracken. Unlike so many books of this sort which are illustrated with sometimes rather dreary black and white photos, this is bright with well sourced colour images which must have taken many months of research to find. A full index is included and I was touched by two of the entries that just say Bess (horse) p 32 and Freda (dog) p 42.

I can see this becoming a much-thumbed resource and fortunately it is well bound. A book to either read right through at a sitting or, to enjoy dipping into its many enticing headings. Whichever way, it will be used.   

Year 5 up/ Age 9 up (and adults will find this a wonderful read as well)

Photo of the author thanks to Philippa Werry