This book is aimed at a young adult audience, but I think it will find many fans amongst the adult population as well. Jackie French has extended her, not inconsiderable, talent in order to truly bring the first world war to life. The horror and bewilderment of people experiencing trench warfare for the first time are expressed well and we find ourselves immersed in the lives and minds of her characters. This is one of those books that makes a real emotional impact and will live on in your memory long after you have read it. I can't think of a better book to introduce the topic of World War One to the younger generation. ( )

This took me a bit too long to finish reading - mostly because it dealt with such grim experiences during world war 1. But it was a good story. Totally fiction, but completely based on real events - a novel crafted from the diaries and letters of the women who volunteered in the midst of the Great War. It was eye-opening and gritty, but with a touching and beautiful side as well. I learned a lot about an important peice of Australian and New Zealand cultural heritage and history. I have some new heros in these behind-the-scenes ANZAC women. ( )

16 year old Midge Macpherson, a New Zealander at finishing school in the UK, goes with two friends to Calais during World War I and helps set up a canteen to cater for the hundreds and thousands of soldiers who are on the march. Jackie French has drawn on many letters and diaries plus interviewing the descendents of some of the soldiers to create this story. ( )

A Rose for the Anzac Boys:
Is about the forgotten army of WWI. The army of women who volunteered their time, supplies, skills and lives to help all the troops that went to war. This story is told through the eyes of a courageous girl called Midge Macpherson who gets sent to a school in England to become a lady, after her two brothers Tim and Dougie have headed off to war. Midge befriends two girls Ethyl and Anne at her school in England and the three of them decided that they are sick and tired of sitting around and they want the adventure and excitement that the war has to offer. So the three girls set off to France where they start up a canteen for the wounded soldiers and soldiers heading out to the front line. To their horror they realize the carnage and devastation the war really is and that it’s not the big adventure they thought it would be. Midge also becomes an ambulance driver as well as a nurse and sees more things than she should have. Midge also learns the sad truth that the army were disapproving of those soldiers who got shell shock and wouldn’t even give the soldiers the pensions they deserved and at times they were even sending these poor victims back into the front line. This book shows the great bonds of Midge and her friends as well as the bonds that can develop with strangers. Throughout the book there are letters written to midge from her relative’s friends and soldiers as well as the letters midge has written to them. The letters really make you feel that you are back in the early 1900s experiencing the war. I believe this book is truly inspiring as it shows the courage and strength that the women went through during the war. And how poorly they were recognized even though without these heroic women many more man would have died. I highly recommend this book it will make you truly admire these wonderful women.
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