Lest they forget
In time for Anzac Day, books for younger readers make war stories easy to digest.
The extraordinary story of a violin that travelled from Dunedin to the battlefields of Europe, via Gallipoli, is eloquently told by Jennifer Beck and illustrator Robyn Belton ( The Bantam and the Soldier) in THE ANZAC VIOLIN: ALEXANDER AITKEN’S STORY (Scholastic, $28).
Smuggling such “excess baggage” was no mean feat. Concealed during kit inspections, Alexander Aitken’s instrument passed through the hands of cooks, stretcher-bearers, nurses and the occasional officer before being returned to him after the war. Aitken, whose reprinted wartime memoir Gallipoli to the Somme is reviewed on page 50 of this issue, became a mathematics professor at the University of Edinburgh and is recognised as one of New Zealand’s foremost mathematicians. His violin is displayed at his old school, Otago Boys’ High.
Belton’s meticulous attention to detail shows in charming images of Aitken playing to a ward of wounded soldiers, attentive nurses and nuns and of his conversation with a French instrument-maker couple, surrounded by village children. And the endpapers are a treat: they include photos, maps, advertisements, pages from Aitken’s notebooks and lines from Vincent O’Sullivan’s Notes from the Front.
An ambitious project – a suite of novels covering each year of the Great War – ends on a fittingly elegiac note with Des Hunt’s 1918: BROKEN POPPIES
(Scholastic, $19), based on the life of his uncle Henry Edward Hunt. Postcards and documents offered a wealth of detail to flesh out a family story and bring to life his central character. Recurring minor players pop up like small flashes of tracer fire, uniting the sequence. A splendid achievement.
A sequel to their Anzac Heroes, Maria Gill and Marco Ivancic’s ANZAC ANIMALS
(Scholastic, $30) introduces 20 furry and feathered friends that helped our troops survive two world wars. This encyclopedia of wartime wildlife encompasses kangaroos, monkeys and even a tortoise as well as more-common dogs and cats. Small creatures smuggled inside uniform jackets, beasts of burden or simply strays that turned up along the way, these mounts, mascots and hardworking mates lightened the burden of war in many ways. Excellent maps and timelines help create a context for this handsome hardback.
Historian Glyn Harper and illustrator Jenny Cooper’s eighth war picture book collaboration, BOBBY: THE LITTLEST WAR
HERO (Puffin, $20) looks at the work of military tunnellers in World War I. The miners who made up the companies, including the 5000 Kiwis commemorated in the Arras Tunnel under Wellington’s Pukeahu
Tunnellers used canaries to detect lethal gases underground – when the bird keeled over, it was time to get out.
National War Memorial, had long used canaries to detect the presence of lethal gases underground – when the bird keeled over, it was time to get out. The original Bobby reportedly survived being gassed seven times.
Philippa Werry’s clear and comprehensive guide to THE NEW ZEALAND WARS
(New Holland, $25) – only recently given a national day – should help confirm their