Light Horse Boy is a follow up book to Lighthouse Girl for Wolfer.It's a fictionalised account of WW1 dotted with real photos.
Light Horse Boy is also beautifully illustrated by Brian Simmonds with atmospheric black & white drawings.
The story uses narrative and letters to show us Jim, at war and his sister, at home.We follow Jim and his horse, to Egypt & eventually Beersheba in 1917.
The story of the Battle for Beersheba is curiously, almost unknown in Australia.
At a recent book event, Morris Gleitzman (who has also written a book about Beersheba - Loyal Creatures) mentioned how odd it is that we Australians, celebrate and remember the disaster, chaos & failure that was Gallipoli, instead of celebrating & remembering the victory of our Light Horse Brigade at Beersheba.
It would seem that our childrens' authors are determined to rectify this matter though, with Mark Greenwood also writing a story that focuses on Beersheba called Midnight.
Wolfer has the unusual pleasure of being shortlisted for two (very different) CBCA books this year, with her picture book Granny Grommet and Me also up for nomination.
Light Horse Boy would be an excellent resource for all primary school and high school libraries. It could also be incorporated into the new HSC area of study: discovery.
It is interesting how cultures often highlight defeats and disasters. Commonly these catastrophes become enshrined as near sacred myths.
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