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
