One boy’s war by Lynn
Huggins-Cooper; illustrated by Ian Benfold Haywood (Frances Lincoln Children’s
Books, 2008)
ISBN 978-1-84780-126-5
32 pages
with colour illustrations
Subjects:
World War One, England, France, family, boy soldiers, picture books (Year 5-8)
The blurb gives an
excellent summary:
“It is 1914 and
16-year-old Sydney is bursting to get a crack at the Kaiser. Fired up by the
military recruitment campaigns and the brave men going to fight in the Great
War, he runs away to enlist, but soon finds himself in a frontline trench where
reality - and the rats - begin to bite. Told through Sydney’s optimistic
letters home and his journal, this is his honest portrayal of the
disillusionment and degradation in the trenches of World War I.”
The Dedication is
“for Sydney Dobson” and the Afterword reveals that Sydney was a real young man,
born in County Durham in the north of England, who died in the war in Belgium.
I have to say I
preferred this book to My mother’s eyes: the story of a boy soldier which
deals with a very similar topic, although based on an Australian, not an English
boy. I found the point of view more convincing, in that all the events were
clearly seen or through Sydney’s eyes (“I’m
joining up. Ma’s smothering me”.) For example, the spread of the women
waving encouragement to the men going up the steps to sign up shows the effect
that would have had on him. So does the following page, with the sergeant
bellowing at the boys in training.
I like the way that not everything is spelt out. Sydney’s mother reads
his first letter against the backdrop of a munitions factory where she must be
working now.
I also found very moving the way that the mood of the illustrations
changes, from the warm, homely scenes of Durham to the grey scenes in the
trenches, and the way that Sydney tries to shield his mother from the true
knowledge of what he is going through by self-censoring his letters. On one page he says,” I’d give anything to be
back at home.” On the next page he writes, "Dear Ma, don’t believe all the
scaremongering in the papers. It’s not too bad.”
The descriptions of the weather and of life in the trenches (trench
foot, shell shock, lice, rats) are simple but powerful:
“A shell hit nearby today. It was the strangest thing I've ever seen. A wall of mud rose up where the shell hit, and surged towards us. It broke over our heads like a wave, covering us in mud and stones.”
Reviews:
There is a review on Books for Keeps and another one on Kirkus Review.
There's even an online review on Youtube whcih shows you the book and pictures.
There's even an online review on Youtube whcih shows you the book and pictures.
Questions:
How old is
Sydney at the beginning of the book?
Why does he
decide to go off to war? Would this have been an easy or a hard decision? Why
was it easy, and what was hard about it?
How old is
he at the end of the book?
What
happens to his father at the end of the book? What happens to Sydney?
Author’s website
Lynn Huggins-Cooper's blog can be found on An awfully big blog adventure ("the ramblings of a few scattered authors") and she also has a Facebook page which shows you the variety of stuff she writes (over 200 books).
Info about the illustrator
This is Ian Benfold Hayward's website.
Other books you might like:
The horses didn’t come home by Pamela Rushby tells the story of two
Australian boys who sign up at 16 and go off to serve with the Light Horse.
Charlie and Tommo
in Private Peaceful sign up at nearly
16, so does William in My mother’s eyes: the story of a boysoldier, and the boys in War game are very young as well.
“Boy soldiers” by Norman Bilbrough in School Journal, Part 4, No 3, 2008 tells
the story of two young soldiers, Stan Stanfield and Len Coley, who fought in
World War One.
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