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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Two parallel stories about two young men, separated by nearly nine decades in two different eras. As Andy and his mates head inexorably towards the bloody torturous Great War, Henry faces challenges, dangerous situations and tragedies of his own. (LA)
Exhibitions
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Teaching Resources
This work has teaching resources.
Teachers' notes via publisher's website.
Notes
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Dedication: With admiration and gratitude I dedicate this book to the memory of the Australian men and women who served in the First World War, 1914-1918. In particular, I mention my grandfather, Private A. J. Metzenthen, Signalman and Footscray Bulldogs supporter, who fought with the fourth Machine Gun Battalion in Belgium and France in 1916, 1917 and 1918.
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Also released as an 'Anzac Centenary Edition', publication details for which have not yet been traced.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Lovely Boys, Good Blokes, and Bonzer Bints : Love and Eroticism in British and Australian Great War Narratives
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 28 no. 1 2014; (p. 155-165, 257) 'Rhoden examines love and eroticisam in British and Australian Great War narratives. Interestingly, Australian narratives, with their protagonists even more separated from their women, are also likely to eschew homosexual themes. Although male tenderness exists, it is represented as being of a much lesser degree, at least in its physical manifestation. Male-male friendship–mateships–represented by Australian authors may carry undertones of emotional and physical intensity, but this is usually expressed in curt, economical gestures. The "lovely boys" of British works give way to a bunch of good blokes. Readers need to look more closely for evidence of romance and special individual bonds.' (Publication abstract) -
Ruins or Foundations : Great War Literature in the Australian Curriculum
2012
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 1 2012; 'The Great War has been represented in Australian curricula since 1914, in texts with tones ranging from bellicose patriotism to idealistic pacifism. Australian curricula have included war literature as one way of transmitting cultural values, values that continue to evolve as successive generations relate differently to war and peace. Changes in ethical perspectives and popular feeling have guided text selection and pedagogy, so that texts which were once accepted as foundational to Australian society seem, at later times, to document civilisation's ruin.
In recent years, overseas texts have been preferred above Australian examples as mediators of the Great War, an event still held by many to be of essential importance to Australia. This paper first considers arguments for including Great War texts on the national curriculum, exploring what war literature can, and cannot, be expected to bring to the program. Interrogating the purpose/s of war literature in the curriculum and the ways in which the texts may be used to meet such expectations, the paper then discusses styles of war texts and investigates whether there is a case for including more texts by Australian authors.' (Author's abstract)
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y
Re-Visiting Historical Fiction for Young Readers : The Past through Modern Eyes
New York (City)
:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
,
2011
Z1886683
2011
single work
criticism
'This study is concerned with how readers are positioned to interpret the past in historical fiction for children and young adults. Looking at literature published within the last thirty to forty years, Wilson identifies and explores a prevalent trend for re-visioning and rewriting the past according to modern social and political ideological assumptions. Fiction within this genre, while concerned with the past at the level of content, is additionally concerned with present views of that historical past because of the future to which it is moving. Specific areas of discussion include the identification of a new sub-genre: Living history fiction, stories of Joan of Arc, historical fiction featuring agentic females, the very popular Scholastic Press historical journal series, fictions of war, and historical fiction featuring multicultural discourses.
Wilson observes specific traits in historical fiction written for children — most notably how the notion of positive progress into the future is nuanced differently in this literature in which the concept of progress from the past is inextricably linked to the protagonist's potential for agency and the realization of subjectivity. The genre consistently manifests a concern with identity construction that in turn informs and influences how a metanarrative of positive progress is played out. This book engages in a discussion of the functionality of the past within the genre and offers an interpretative frame for the sifting out of the present from the past in historical fiction for young readers.' (Publisher's blurb)
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Living History Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 20 no. 1 2010; (p. 77-86) 'During my research into historical fiction for children and young adult readers I came across a range of texts that relied on a living or lived experience of history to frame the historical story. These novels were similar to the time-slip narrative; however, not all examples used the traditional convention of time-slippage. I wanted to bundle these novels together - 'time-slip' novels included - as examples of 'living history' narratives because they appeared from the outset as a distinct literary form requiring particular reading strategies.
These texts, which I will refer to as Living history novels, require readers to align uncritically with modern perception. Readers are persuasively invited to assume that the modern characters' perception of the past is authentic because it has been formed by a lived experience of history. In Living history novels, readers are positioned to perceive both the strengths and weaknesses of past and present times, ultimately reconciling the two in a present that faces chronologically forwards. Modern focalising characters in Living history fiction place modern perception in a superior relationship to that of the past.
This sub-genre of historical novels is distinctive in its strong and consistent modern character focalisation and point of view. The Living history novel creates a confluence of past and present, be it physically or psychically. Characters are variously conveyed from a generalised present, or past, to an explicit historical period or event. The Living history novel is distinctive in its intense character introversion, quest journey and self-discovery. The most important outcome of the living history experience is that characters learn something significant about themselves. Because the story is about the modern character's quest and self realisation, the past is consistently perceived from their point of view. Modern characters are transported in time and readers are only rarely invited to see the past from a past point of view' (Author's abstract). -
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Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature
New York (City)
:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
,
2009
Z1790145
2009
single work
criticism
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Fiction
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 14 June 2003; (p. 4)
— Review of Boys of Blood and Bone 2003 single work novel -
Untitled
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 18 no. 3 2003; (p. 41-42)
— Review of Boys of Blood and Bone 2003 single work novel -
Young Reading
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 18-19 October 2003; (p. 13)
— Review of Boys of Blood and Bone 2003 single work novel -
Nice Filler for Stockings with Some Rewarding Talent for Teens
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 6 December 2003; (p. 5a)
— Review of Boys of Blood and Bone 2003 single work novel ; Strandee 2003 single work novel ; While I Live 2003 single work novel -
Truth and Dare
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 11 January 2004; (p. 24-25)
— Review of Boys of Blood and Bone 2003 single work novel -
Boys of Blood and Bone by David Metzenthen (Not Your Usual Manure)
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Winter vol. 11 no. 2 2003; (p. 18-19) -
Ernie Tucker on Books
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: English in Australia , Winter no. 140 2004; (p. 58-68) -
A Labour of Love
2005
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 9 May 2005; (p. 6) -
(Re)constructing Masculinity : Representations of Men and Masculinity in Australian Young Adult Literature
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature , May vol. 17 no. 1 2007; (p. 28-35) Potter is concerned with analysing how representations of masculinity draw upon 'multiple masculine discourses present within a culture at any given time', in ways which ultimately support the dominant configuration of hegemonic masculinity (p.28). He looks at two Australian realist fictions for young adults, Boys of Blood and Bone (Metzenthen) and Burning Eddy (Gardner), arguing that they are 'constrained by elements of the normative and to some extent mythic Australian masculinity' in ways that reinforce Australian masculinist traditions (p.34). Potter contends that both texts maintain and perpetuate patriarchal systems of dominance and oppression by constructing the notion of masculinity at the expense of women's subordination. However, he makes the point that Gardner's use of hybridization introduces the possibility of challenging masculine biased discourses by privileging an alternative sexuality that is a 'hybrid of masculine and feminine traits' (p.33). -
An Awfully Big Adventure : Killing Death in War Stories for Children
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 16 no. 2 2006; (p. 90-95) Halliday locates a gap in Kerry Mallan's study concerning discourses of death and dying in children's literature, and claims, 'A curious omission is death in war, from the legal killing of and by soldiers, to the horror underlying the euphemism of 'collateral damage'' (90). Halliday suggests that despite a 'proliferation of discourses [on the] manifestations of death... there is a lingering taboo in dealing with death in war stories, especially for older readers' (90). The essay refers to some of the strategies and narrative techniques used to represent war in children's fiction from an array of novels, including several Australian children's texts by contemporary authors, Morris Gleitzman, Sonya Hartnett, Anthony Eaton, Serpil Ural and David Metzenthen. Strategies discussed include discourses of hope, the use of metaphor, reader-subject positioning and setting with Halliday concluding that, 'When death is present and brutally explicit...cultural pressures about the appropriateness of reading material and consequent censorship occur' (94).
Awards
- 2004 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Writing for Young Adults
- 2004 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
- 2004 honour book CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Book of the Year: Older Readers
- 2003 winner Queensland Premier's Literary Awards — Best Young Adult Book
Last amended 26 Sep 2019 14:29:54
Settings:
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cFrance,cWestern Europe, Europe,
- Stratford, Maffra - Stratford - Dargo area, Central Gippsland, Gippsland, Victoria,
- ca. 1916
- ca. 2001
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