My Gallipoli by Ruth Starke, illustrated by Robert Hannaford

Anzac Day is only a few weeks away and so this book on people who were at at Gallipoli seems like a good one to review at this time. It also marks my 70th book review for this blog. 

My Gallipoli by Ruth Starke, illustrated by Robert Hannaford (Working Title Press, 2015)

32 pages with full page illustrations

Subjects: World War One, France, Australia, Turkey, nurses, chaplains, war correspondents, Charles Bean, war artists, George Lambert, snipers, Billy Sing, Ataturk, Mule Corps, war graves, Cyril Hughes, sophisticated picture books (Year 6-12)

Synopsis

“From the shores of Anzac Cove to the heights of Chunuk Bair, from Cape Helles to Gurkha Bluff, the Gallipoli Peninsula was the place where thousands of men from sixteen nations fought, suffered, endured or died during the eight months of occupation in 1915. For each of them, their families and their nurses, Gallipoli meant something different. Their voices emerge from the landscape and across the decades with stories of courage, valour, despair and loss.” (Penguin Books website)

The title suggests that Gallipoli has some personal resonance for all of us, while the cover, with its portraits in individual squares, gives a clue to the way the story will be told inside. I like the way that it focuses on real historical characters, as well as nameless Anzac soldiers and Turkish people, and also includes women, stretcher bearers, the chaplain and indigenous soldiers.

I also like the fact that it doesn’t finish in December 1915, but shows the ongoing effects of the campaign, and what it might be like to revisit Gallipoli today. There are useful extra facts at the back and a map at the front. Each spread could be used as a springboard to find out lots more information.

Teachers’ notes are available here and include comments from both author and illustrator about the thinking, ideas and inspiration behind the book.

Reviews:

There are plenty of good reviews that will give you a idea of the book’s themes and potential readership. The Readings website says that "the rich panoply of voices in Ruth Starke’s text offers upper primary and lower secondary students a broad understanding of the Anzac Campaign and the current views of those engaged in the war as well as those at home." Other reviews appear in The Book Chook and Kids Book Review.

Questions:

Which page was the most surprising for you? Which one presented a viewpoint that you hadn’t thought of before?

Author’s website

Ruth Starke lives in Adelaide, South Australia, and has published more than 20 novels for young people. Before becoming an author, Ruth worked in public relations and travel marketing, and at a great variety of other jobs - of which the most interesting, she says, were selling French perfume in Harrods, cooking on the radio, taking tourists to Kashmir, and interviewing Grand Prix drivers. Ruth has also written “An Anzac tale,” a graphic novel about Gallipoli.

This is my favourite of “20 questions with Ruth” on her website:

What is the naughtiest thing you did?

Accidentally swallowed my best friend's brother's prize goldfish during a “dare”.

Info about the illustrator

This is Robert Hannaford’s gallery. 

In an interview in The Advertiser, he explains “How to paint a portrait” and says, “This is why I paint. I never get sick of it. Painting for me is a learning experience.”

NZ connections:

I’m pleased to see that  Ruth Starke, included a story told by a New Zealand soldier, “Private Andrew McBain” of the Auckland Mounted Rifles, and his mate Frankie, in the pages on Chunuk Bair.

Meet the Anzacs by Claire Saxby

Meet the Anzacs by Claire Saxby, illustrated by Max Berry (Random House, 2014)

ISBN 978 0 85798 192 9

32 pages with full page colour illustrations

Subjects: World War One, Australia, Egypt, Cairo, Turkey, Gallipoli, Anzac Cove, picture books (Year 5-8)

Synopsis

This is one of a series of books about “the extraordinary men and women who have shaped Australia’s history”; others to be met in the same series are Ned Kelly, Mary MacKillop and Captain Cook, with more titles coming soon.

The foreword says this is the story of how the Anzac legend began. Unlike many other books, this one finishes on 25 April 1915. It starts with the men going to sign up as war is declared, and I’m pleased that it includes a mention of the “NZ” part of ANZAC: “In New Zealand, men were doing the same.” The story doesn't focus on any particular soldiers; instead, much of it is told through snatches of talk and conversation as the men sail across the world to Egypt, visit the pyramids, play cricket in the sand, pack up and travel across the Mediterranean, finally landing at Gallipoli.

I like the cover, which is similar in some respects to the cover of Best mates (three young men with their arms around each other’s shoulders!) The books were both published at about the same time, so this is sheer serendipity or else a reflection of something important about the theme of both books. There is also a timeline at the end.

You can see some of the pictures if you click on the Free sample on this Random House page, or on the excellent YouTube clip about the book, which cleverly intersperses the artwork with original photographs taken during the war.  "A picture book is a bit like an ice berg", Claire says, "in that you have to have an understanding of all this material to then be able to write lightly across the top of it in the few words that you have available there."

Reviews:

This review on Aussie reviews calls it "a wonderful introduction to the soldiers who forged the ANZAC legend." 

The Teachers' resources include author and illustrator interviews, classroom activities and discussion questions.  

About the author

You can read about Claire Saxby on her website and her blog, Let's have words (great title) which has a blog post about the launch of Meet the Anzacs.

I like the bit in the About me section where she says: "Words have fascinated me as long as I can remember. I have always loved reading. I used to go home from boarding school and read for days on end, only emerging to swim and eat."

Another book in the same series, also by Claire Saxby, is Meet Weary Dunlop. 

About the illustrator

Max Berry’s website says he was born in 1987 in Katherine, NT, Australia; he did a Bachelor of Design in 2005-2009, and lives and works in Sydney. He’s won a string of prizes, including being a finalist in 2012 and 2014 in the Gallipoli Art Prize. I’d never heard of this before but it began in 2006, runs annually until 2015 and is administered by the Gallipoli Memorial Club (whom I’d never heard of before, either.)

Have you read it?

Have you read this book? Let me know what you think!

Evan’s Gallipoli by Kerry Greenwood

Evan’s Gallipoli : a gripping story of unlikely friendship and an incredible journey behind enemy lines by Kerry Greenwood (Allen & Unwin, 2013)

Written in diary format; most entries are fairly short – not many are more than a page long, and often they are only a short paragraph.

Subjects: World War One, Gallipoli, Turkey, Thrace, Greece, deserters, pacifism, senior fiction (Year 7-10)

Synopsis

The first diary entry is for May 1st 1915. It doesn't mention the landings at Gallipoli, but Evan's father is reading the newspaper when he looks up and says, "I must go to the Dardanelles at once". 

Evan (aged 14) and his father take supplies from their family business (Warrender’s Superfine Spices) and travel by ship with the army medical corps from Australia to Egypt, Lemnos and then to Turkey. His father is a preacher and a pacifist, who believes that God has told him “to take comforts to the soldiers dying on the hot cliffs at Cape Hellas and the beaches of Anzac Cove.”

They arrive in June, and endure the shelling and the noise, the dreadful living conditions and the extremes of weather, just as the soldiers have to. Simpson and his donkey make an appearance, and Evan makes friends with a couple of Aussie blokes called Bluey and Curly. Evan’s father - who is clearly a man of God, but often difficult to live with - then decides to take his message of peace to the Turks as well.

The two of them are captured by the Turks and the German officers, then sent further inland. By this time Evan’s father is sick with fever, possibly malaria, and he gradually loses touch with reality. It is up to Evan to find a way to steer them and their new friend Abdul back through a strange country to the safety they hope to find in Greece.

This is a story that gives a quite different account of the Gallipoli campaign from anything you will have read before. I would have liked a map to explain exactly where Thrace was placed amongst Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, so here is one from Wikipedia (which Kerry Greenwood refers to as a useful source in her afterword!)

I like the dedication: For all orderlies, friends, nurses, carriers, widows, orphans, minders and peacemakers who ameliorate the cruelty of war.

Reviews:

Here are some reviews written by by teachers.

Questions:

What did you find out about Gallipoli that you didn’t know before?

What did you find out about Turkey, the Turkish people and Turkey during the war that you didn’t know before?

What were some of the surprises in this story? Did you guess any of them?

Why do you think Abdul felt the way he did about the Jews and the gypsies?

Author’s website:

Kerry Greenwood’s website (and Kerry Greenwood herself) might not be quite what you expect.

She is best known for the Phryne Fisher series, whose beautiful, rich and elegant heroine solves crimes and mysteries in 1920s Australia, but she has written some other books for children and young adults.

And I can’t resist quoting these fascinating facts from her website:

"Kerry Greenwood has worked as a folk singer, factory hand, director, producer, translator, costume-maker, cook and is currently a solicitor. When she is not writing, she works as a locum solicitor for the Victorian Legal Aid. She is also the unpaid curator of seven thousand books, three cats (Attila, Belladonna and Ashe) and a computer called Apple (which squeaks). 

She embroiders very well but cannot knit. She has flown planes and leapt out of them (with a parachute) in an attempt to cure her fear of heights (she is now terrified of jumping out of planes but can climb ladders without fear). She can detect second-hand bookshops from blocks away and is often found within them. 

For fun Kerry reads science fiction/fantasy and detective stories. She is not married, has no children and lives with a registered wizard. When she is not doing any of the above she stares blankly out of the window."

There is some more info about her on Allen & Unwin's website.

Other books you might like:

It’s hard to think of any other books to compare this to, as it tells the story from such a different angle. I found a reference to Candles at Dawn by Serpil Ural which also tells the story of Gallipoli from the Turkish perspective, but I haven't come across that book.

Gallipoli: the front line experience by Tolga Ornek, Feza Toker (Currency Press, 2006) is a non-fiction companion title to a Turkish-made documentary, based on diaries, letters and photographs of Australian, New Zealand and Turkish soldiers involved in the Gallipoli campaign.

There is a secret which is only revealed at the very end and I can’t say more fear of spoiling the plot, except to say that it is part of a fine tradition (stretching back to Shakespearian times) of other stories that use a similar technique.