An unexpected hero by L.P. Hansen

An unexpected hero by L.P. Hansen (CreateBooks, 2014)

ISBN 978-0-9941102-7-5

12 chapters; 145 pages

Subjects: World War One, New Zealand, conscientious objectors, pacifism, Archibald Baxter, schools, bullying, farms, junior fiction (Year 5-8)

Synopsis

Matt Turner, 12 years old, faces a move from the big city to the country for family reasons. Instead of living with his parents, he has to stay on the farm with his grandparents and attend the same small country school where his father once went.

First chapters can be tricky when then there is a lot of information to get across, but Linda Hansen’s opening chapter does a fine job of introducing Matt, his grandparents and the farm, explaining why he is there, showing us how difficult it can be for kids on that first day at a new school and hinting at some of the major themes to follow (local war history and Matt’s struggles with public speaking).  

At Matt’s new school, the annual Year 8 farewell speeches are a big community event, and he has arrived in time to be a part of it. Matt’s family has never made a big deal about war, so he doesn’t know who to choose for his “war hero”. Even worse, he hates speaking in public (a fact that his grandparents don’t know about him) and is terrified that he will stutter, blush and totally mess up.

The book follows Matt’s journey both in thinking about the nature of heroism and in taking steps towards a victory of his own. I liked the way that the author shows us Matt struggling with both of these issues, and getting help from other people, but ultimately finding a way towards his own resolution of them.

Reviews:

Bobs book blog (always an excellent resource) gives the book a very good review and calls it “an excellent short novel …for primary and intermediate children and a timely reminder that it takes courage to refuse to fight”

Free Teachers’ Resource kits are available from the publisher here.

Questions:

Who would you choose as your war time hero?

(I’m currently taking my first ever MOOC (Massive Open Online) course on “Changing faces of heroism”,  and this is one of the first questions we were asked.)

About the author

Linda Hansen is both a storyteller and a writer. In 2012, she won the Jack Lasenby Children’s Writing Award for ‘Socks in the Library,’ a story about homelessness.

Linda developed her writing skills by working in places like Radio New Zealand and then in Parliament where, as the deputy director of one of the Research Units, she researched and wrote for politicians. During her time at Volunteer Service Abroad, she learned about countries where the volunteers worked and wrote handbooks about them.

Other books you might like:

Other books that deal with the topic of pacifism are Evan’s Gallipoli by Kerry Greenwood, Remembrance by Theresa Breslin and My brother’s war by David Hill. 

Things I didn’t know

I did know something about Archibald Baxter and I‘ve read his classic memoir We will not cease, but I didn't know anything about the developments in the country that Matt uses for the basis of his speech. I don’t want to spoil the plot but it is worth searching online for the idea of “changing rifles into notebooks”.

Links

You can find more info about Archibald Baxter on Te ara, NZ history or the site Lest we forget – "remembering peacemakers on Anzac Day".

Have you read it?

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

The story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

The story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, illustrated by Robert Lawson (first published by Viking Press in 1936; published Picture Puffins 1977; reprinted numerous times)

About 70 pgs with large print on one side and charming, full page black and white illustrations on the facing page

Subjects: peace, pacifism, Spain, animals, fable, picture books (Year 2-6)

 

Synopsis

I've included this title because I think that the topic of children’s war books should also include children’s books about peace – and the story of Ferdinand is one of the most famous, as well as the most charming!  

(From the Wellington City Libraries catalogue record)

“A true classic with a timeless message, The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. So what will happen when our pacifist hero is picked for the bullfights in Madrid?”

Reviews:

This School Library Journal review lists it amongst the top 100 picture books and includes a number of the illustrations, as well as a clip from an Oscar-winning Disney cartoon short (1938). 

It is also listed in 100bookseverychildshouldreadbeforegrowingup. (Pause here while you count how many of the 100 you have read.) 

The Story Philosophy site uses it as a starter for discussion on animal rights, violence, conformity and obedience to authority. 

About the author

Munro Leaf (1905-1976) was an American teacher, football coach and author of over 30 books for children. The story of Ferdinand was his most well-known and has been translated into over sixty languages.

This author profile contains a lovely description of how the book came to be written:

“Munro Leaf and his friend, award-winning artist and writer Robert Lawson, had been talking about the kind of book they would want to write if they could get past the publisher’s ideas of what made a good book. It took him less than an hour - “25 minutes on a rainy Saturday” - to scribble down the story on a yellow pad of paper. With Lawson’s illustrations, the beatific bull was on his way to becoming internationally famous for his peaceful message in 1936--a time when the world was coming apart in war.”

About the illustrator

Robert Lawson (1892-1957) studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, served in WW1 designing camouflage and illustrated for books as well as magazines. He once said: "I have never, as far as I can remember, given one moment's thought as to whether any drawing that I was doing was for adults or children. I have never changed one conception or line or detail to suit the supposed age of the readers." (Hornbook, 1940)

Other books you might like:

My brother’s war by David Hill is a fictional treatment of pacifism, seen through the eyes of two brothers who sign up and refuse to sign up for WW1 at the same time.

Other fables about war and peace include The duck and the gun by Joy Cowley, illustrated by Robyn Belton and The general by Michael Foreman.

What was happening in 1936

• George VI was crowned king of England after his brother Edward’s abdication.
• The Spanish Civil War was being fought.
• It was 18 years since the end of WW1, and the start of WW2 was only three years away.
• Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany in 1933

Despite these events, and the looming threat of war, Munro Leaf always denied any political intentions; he said, "it’s 'a happy-ending story about being yourself.'”(Source: School Library Journal)

Remembrance by Theresa Breslin

Remembrance by Theresa Breslin (Doubleday, 2002)

ISBN 0 385 60204 9

42 chapters; 304 pages

Subjects: World War One, England, France, nurses, pacifism, letters, war poets, young adult fiction (Year 9-12)

 

Synopsis:

This is a story of those who go off to war and those who stay behind. It shows the impact that World War One had on small communities, on the class system in Britain and on the place of women in society.

The story is told through the eyes, lives and experiences of five young people living on opposite sides of the class barrier in a small Scottish village. At the start of the book, in October 1915, they are aged from 14 to 22. On one side are the children of the local shop: John Malcolm, who can’t wait to join the war, his twin Maggie and younger brother Alex, who also manages to sign up despite being well under age. At the “Big House”, Francis struggles to know how far he should follow his pacifist leanings, while his younger sister, Charlotte, wants to trains as a nurse.

You know as a reader that their lives are going to change, and it’s unlikely they will all survive unscathed. As they start to go their different ways, some of the story is told through letters, using a change in font for each letter-writer. This works well except for Francis’ letters which use an italic font that is harder to read.

Theresa Breslin has obviously carried out a huge amount of research to be able to portray such a variety of scenes: a military tribunal hearing, the munitions factory where Maggie works, the hospitals, the front line. There are some moving moments, such as when telegrams get delivered all over the village after a big battle (“up and down the lanes, lots of doors got chapped this afternoon.”)

Extracts from poems of Siegfried Sassoon (Suicide in the trenches and Aftermath) appear at the beginning and end of the book.  

You can read an extract from the book here. 
"Charlotte has been working at the local cottage hospital but has now been accepted to the military hospital in the city. On her first day a hospital train full of casualties arrives, and despite being already crowded, the hospital must take them. Although she is only 16 and has very little experience she must help in the emergency."

Another cover of the same title

Teachers notes can be found here and here. 
“Wars aren’t simply about those fighting at the fronts. Wars are also about those continuing to live in homes from which father and sons, husbands and sweethearts have gone, some never to return. World War I provided an opportunity for some women to work out with the home for the first time in their lives, giving them a sense of independence they might never otherwise have had. It also made people question the way they lived their lives, the way they expressed themselves and the way the interacted with other people.”

Questions:
Theresa Breslin herself poses a series of questions for readers of this book on her website. These are some of them:

• How do you react when the country is swept by war fever? Would you forge the date on your birth certificate and run away from home?
• What if you don't believe in the senseless slaughter of young men in the name of politics and empire - what do you do when others label you a coward?
• In a world where women have few rights... would you have the strength to use the opportunity of war to stretch your mind and grasp the possibilities that it opens up? Could you leave the safety of your family and challenge the way the world works?
• How can love survive in the horrific conditions of loss and bereavement that a world war results in? 

Reviews:
This review in Publishers weekly says the book "starts slowly but ultimately packs a wallop." Another review on the blog Not acting my age (books written for teens) describes it as "a lively way to view a world of nearly a century ago" but wonders if it is more of an adventure story than a truly YA book as (this blogger feels) the characters don't undergo much emotional growth. 

Author’s website

I didn’t know anything about Theresa Breslin before, but her website says she was born and brought up in a small town in Scotland, worked as a mobile librarian, has written over 30 books for children and young adults and won the Carnegie Medal for Whispers in the graveyard (1994) about a dyslexic boy. You can read an interview with her here. I like the bit where she says the most important quality for a writer is "tenacity".

She has said about this book:

"At this time of a new century I thought it was important to write this book. I wanted to show the many and complex aspects of war. The soldier who firmly believes he is doing his duty and is prepared to sacrifice his life to protect his family. The soldier, disillusioned, who feels his very soul is being corrupted by contact with militarism. The girls who went to nurse, wanting to help the war effort or looking for adventure, and finding in some cases a self-fulfilment they never would have had if the war had not occurred. And… the terrible grief of those left behind."

She also has a page that I found very interesting on the research she carried out in libraries, archives, museums, newspapers and private family papers, and in her own visits to the battle sites in France and Belgium. 

Other books you might like:

The role of women in World War One, and the impact that war had on them,was undervalued or unacknowledged for a long time, so it's good to see books like this. Jackie French is another author who has tackled the topic in A rose for the Anzac boys (Harper Collins, 2008). 

Things I didn’t know

I knew that letters from the Front could be censored, and soldiers would try to find ways around the censorship to hint at their whereabouts - perhaps using some kind of riddle, or a phrase that might mean something to the recipient, but I didn't know about the codes they used. At one stage, Francis sends a letter to Maggie which she doesn't fully understand until Alex explains it to her, saying “lots of soldiers send coded messages in their letters. They sometimes use it to tell their families know whereabouts in France they are.” The code might be a nonsense phrase, or words that don’t make sense in the context of their surroundings. For example, “nineteen shillings and nine pence, or rather not” would indicate a word that was 19 lines down and 9 words across. 
Theresa Breslin says in the notes on her research that she found out about this when she was "privileged to be allowed to read through some family papers which contained letters from a young soldier who was killed on the Somme." 

I'd never heard of The Bantams (the battalion that young Alex hopes to join.) At the start of the war, the minimum height requirement for volunteers was 5 ft 3 inches, but many men who were shorter than that still wanted to join up. You can read about them here and here, and this site describes the Canadian Bantams. This 25 second, silent newsreel clip from British Pathé shows a military review of the Bantam Battalion, including (as the notes explain) one "extremely short soldier". 

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g10942/?co=wwipos

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.