One Boy's War

Sixteen-year-old Sydney is overwhelmed by the excitement of the 1914 recruitment campaigns and the bravado of men leaving for the Great War. Bursting with enthusiasm, he runs away to join up but soon finds himself a long way from home in a frontline trench where reality — and the rats — begin to bite. Told through Sydney's optimistic letters home and his journal, this is a frank portrayal of the realities of life and death in the trenches of World War I. Atmospheric art and realistic but restrained storytelling bring this remote time and place to life for young readers.