Charlie Wilcox's Great War by Sharon E. McKay Date of Publication: 2003 ISBN: 0143014714 Number of Pages: 288

REQUIRED READING ABILITY: Average
GENRES: Historical Fiction, Adventure, Romance
THEMES: Survival, Life versus Death, Friendship, Coming of Age, Romance

SUMMARY:
Seventeen-year-old Charlie returns to his family and friends in Newfoundland after being away at war for three years. He tries to pick up the threads of his life by first confronting the girl he left behind – Claire Guy.

As they try to reconnect, Claire realizes how much Charlie has changed and grown. Claire sees that Charlie is much older than his 17 years. She wants to know about the war as much as Charlie needs to unburden his heart. Charlie may have survived the war, but many of his comrades didn’t.

Through a series of flashbacks and over the course of an afternoon, Charlie tells Claire how sick he was in the trenches, how he hung onto barbed wire in “No Man's Land” until nightfall, and a number of other horrors he experienced in war.

WHO WOULD LOVE THIS BOOK? A kid who...

• liked Charlie Wilcox (though you don’t have to have read the first book to understand this one
• enjoys Sharon McKay’s writing
• likes stories about World War I, or war in general
• thinks that war is exciting and thrilling
• likes understated romance
• has had to reconnect with a family member who has been away for some time
• has lost someone in a tragic situation
  

WHAT ELSE?
This sequel to Charlie Wilcox was awarded the Children’s Book Centre Choice Award in 2004, and was also a Red Maple Award Nominee. It has moments of humour interspersed with tragedy and self-recrimination, and despite its less-than-exciting cover, it is well received by students. Some war memories of Charlie’s might be upsetting to sensitive readers.

RELATED LINK:
Author's Website