Brave Company by David Hill

Anzac Day is one of the most important days in the history of New Zealand.  It was the ignition of a series of events that began the formation of the New Zealand identity and loosened the apron ties of Mother England.  It was also the beginning of unimagined sacrifice by a country with a small population.

As a teacher, I believe that this important part of our history should never be forgotten and is a valuable part of the learning journey for our children.  Consequently I teach an Anzac Day unit each year and supply and read a selection of war stories to the children.

Last year I reviewed the David Hill novel My Brother's War set in WWI about two brothers, one who volunteered to serve and one who was a conscientious objector but was forced onto the battlefield against his beliefs.  Since that review I purchased another David Hill book focused on a different war.

Brave Company is set during the Korean Conflict and the main character is 16 year old Russell who is a member of the New Zealand Navy serving on a ship called HMNZS Taupo which has been sent to participate in the Korean Conflict.  Korea is war rarely discussed in terms of every day conversations on war, but New Zealand sent 4700 soldiers to serve during the 1950-1953 war and then as a peace keeping force during the armistice until 1957, and 1300 sailors served on frigates during the war and armistice, and all up 45 military personnel were lost.  (www.nzhistory.net.nz - Korean War)

I had a great uncle serve in Korea.  The first time I did an Anzac Day unit my Gran lent me a postcard Uncle T sent home about Christmas time with the Christmas Day menu on it.  I also treasure the photo I acquired of him in uniform with my great grandfather (who served in WWI) and great grandmother.  Uncle T saw enough of war in Korea to oppose his own son joining the army to serve in Vietnam.

This is the front cover and the blurb on the back cover:

 

 

Russell's family has a secret about an uncle who served and died in WWII who Russell once looked up to.  During his time in Korea Russell finds out about his uncle and discovers not all in what it appears to be.

 

Russell is a boy seaman on a frigate and the battle scene the frigate is involved in is tense and described in detail.  The tension is built throughout the book with innuendo about his uncle weaved through.  Hill doesn't reveal the questions asked about Russell's uncle early in the book.  They emerge as Russell's character is revealed and he meets a man who served with his uncle as he makes several trips into the battlefields of Korea. 

 

The book also reveals the plight of the Korean people as they fled their homes in the battle zone and the impact upon the children in particular.  Russell makes connections with a brother and sister in this predicament and demonstrates another side to his character as his understanding of their situation develops.

 

Again this is a great book to engage children in the realities and impacts of war.  It is a particularly good book to target boys aged 10 up to read, but I believe girls will also read this book.

Heartland by Jenny Pattrick

I love reading books by New Zealand authors.  I think it is important to support our authors, so I prefer to purchase their books when I can rather than borrow from the library, that way I am financially supporting writing in New Zealand (the little they do get!).  Jenny Pattrick is a celebrated New Zealand author.  She is well known for The Denniston Rose, Heart of Coal, and Catching the Current as well as Landings and Inheritance, Pattrick keeps putting out books that encapsulate great story telling from many different eras and points of view of uniquely New Zealand characters.

 

Here is the front cover and back blurb for Heartland:

 

Heartland is set in the central North Island on the Central Plateau in a small, nowhere town called Manawa somewhere off the beaten track.  Once a bustling forestry town, it's been years and years since its hey day.  The local community is tight knit on one hand, but very private on another, all keeping their own business but curious about each other.

Many houses in the town are owned by city folk who come down for the weekends during the ski season to take advantage of Mt Ruapehu's ski fields and party at night.

The story centres on a young man, Donny Mac, who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  He was abandoned by his parents to his grandfather at a young age, and after his grandfather passed on two of the older members of the town have kept an eye on him and supported him.

He comes home from a short stint in jail (engineered by the dastardly matriarch of the nearby big smoke of Raetihi) to find a girl, Nightshade, who no one likes, in his home claiming he is the father of her expected child.

Meanwhile, camping out in an abandoned house across the way is another young girl, known as the Virgin, with her baby.

Due to events that unfold due to the untimely disappearance of Nightshade not long after her baby is born, Donny Mac and the Virgin have to join forces to care for each other and their children.  As the story unfolds, each of the town's permanent residents become more entangled in each other's lives in more ways than one and they come to rely on each other more and more.  The strange elderly ladies living over the back fence of Donny Mac's house are also drawn into their lives and the lives of other long term residents of Manawa.

When a film crew comes to town to film a movie, a secret is threatened to be revealed and all are on edge.  But the tight knit community draws together to protect each other and consolidate their reliance on one another.

It is a dark sort of novel.  With the setting being in one of the coldest places in New Zealand, you can't help but feel the cold creep into you as you read.  Events and connections unfold as you become more engrossed in the characters and the secrets they and the town have concealed for so long.

It is indeed very clever story telling.