Recognition and Awards

WINNER OF THE JUNIOR FICTION AWARD AND CHILDREN'S CHOICE JUNIOR FICTION AWARD New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2013

WINNER OF THE LIANZA LIBRARIANS' CHOICE AWARD 2013

STORYLINES NOTABLE BOOK AWARD 2013

IBBY HONOUR LIST 2014

Book Excerpt

"...there are stories that need to be told over and over again, to introduce a new generation of readers to important ideas and to critical times in their country's history... Hill's descriptions of trench warfare are unforgettable." from the Judges' Report of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2013

"...this is an important and highly readable book." NZ Listener

Author's Note

My Dear Mother,

Well, I've gone and done it. I've joined the Army!

Don't be angry at me, Mother dear. I know you were glad when I wasn't chosen in the ballot. But some of my friends were, and since they will be fighting for King and Country, I want to do the same.

It's New Zealand, 1914, and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out in Europe. William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector and refuses to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested. Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there are very different. And what they experience at the front line will challenge the beliefs that led them there. A compelling novel about the First World War for 9-12 year olds.