A moving and powerful story about the meaning of Remembrance Day, drawing on the Australian and Turkish battle at Gallipoli On the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, David Metzenthen asks, "What is the true meaning of remembering?" This is a powerful and moving picture book for older readers about the "one minute's silence" observed in Australia on Remembrance Day, and what Gallipoli means to Australians in this context. By showing both sides of the conflict—Aussie and Turk—he encourages readers to think about all those who have fallen, and by using this iconic battle—one of the few to have brought two nations closer together—he suggests another perspective on Gallipoli. Michael Camilleri's extraordinary illustrations enhance the reader's experience.
Author
As a child, David Metzenthen was a nature boy; he loved fishing and farm work, exploring the bush, and being outdoors under the stars. He also lived very much inside his own head; feeling that the world was a place of unlimited adventure. He harboured dreams of becoming a cowboy, a fisherman, a farmer, a sailor, or a writer. Instead he left home at eighteen, with a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road for company, and hitch-hiked his way around New Zealand. Returning to Australia, David worked as a builder's labourer and advertising copy writer before finding success as a writer of books for children and young adults. David Metzenthen now lives with his wife and two children in Melbourne and is one of Australia's top writers for young people. He has received many awards for excellence, including the 2000 CBCA Book of the Year Award: Older Readers for Stony Heart Country, a 2003 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Wildlight, and a 2003 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Boys of Blood and Bone. In 2004, Boys of Blood and Bone also won a NSW Premier's Literary Award and was an Honour Book in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards: Older Readers. His novel Black Water was an Honour Book in the 2008 CBCA Book of the Year Awards: Older Readers, and Jarvis 24 won the CBCA Award for Book of the Year: Older Readers in 2010, as well as being shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award, WA Premier's Literary Award, Inky Awards and SA Festival Awards for Literature.
