My Brother's War by David Hill

My Brother's War Reviews

• 
  Tiffany

  Two brothers, two stories, one war. David Hill’s new young-adult book My Brother’s War is a very cleverly written story about two New Zealand brothers’ very different views and experiences of World War One. William doesn’t wait to be conscripted; he enlists for the army, ready to fight for Mother England, proud to be doing his “bit against the Hun”. His younger brother Edmund is a conscientious objector to the war, and, when ordered to report for military training, refuses to do so. The book follows the two brothers on their divergent paths that sees them both ending up on the battlefield in France.
  
  English teachers will love this book. It is well written, easily digestible, and has ample scope for class discussions and essay questions.
  
  It’s been many years since I was in a high school classroom but I still vividly remember having to compare and contrast the jingoistic Rupert Brooke (“If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England”) and the traumatised war-weary Wilfred Owen (“If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, …My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.”)
  
  David Hill’s book fits neatly and naturally into such discussions. William’s excitement at being off on a great adventure quickly pales when faced with the horrors and realities of war. Edmund’s passionate refusal to follow military orders and be part of a killing machine waivers in the face of the suffering and heroism he witnesses in the trenches. David Hill was a teacher for fourteen years – and it shows. This book would be an excellent addition to the English syllabus.
  
  History teachers, however, may not be quite as enamoured with the book. The story is light on facts and details. I assume, from my own knowledge of WWI, that the brothers are caught up in the Battle of the Somme but there is no mention of place names, dates, or personalities to confirm that. The book’s cover says that “It’s New Zealand, 1914 and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out” but the story mentions, in passing, events at Gallipoli (1915/16) and Edmund is arrested pursuant to the Military Service Act 1916. The letters the brothers write home to their mother are frustratingly undated.
  
  Although I would have appreciated more factual background and historical detail, I concede that may have distracted from the aim of the book which is to tell the story of New Zealanders’ experiences in the war from two opposing perspectives. The book nicely achieves that objective. I’ve read many (adult) books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the world wars and it is rare for the plight of conscientious objectors to be even mentioned, much less dealt with as compassionately as this young-adult book does. My Brother’s War is a very readable, thought-provoking story from one of New Zealand’s best young-adult writers.
• 
  Adele Broadbent

  This novel was real, raw, harrowing and fabulous all at the same time.
  Two brothers with different convictions. Two brothers who each believe their way is the right way. But war soon makes them realise that war in any way is wrong.
  David Hill puts you in the trenches, amongst the shelling and the destruction. Absolutely Brilliant.
  
  Winner of the Junior Fiction section of the 2013 NZ Post Children's Book Awards.
  
• 
  Elise

  A perfectly pitched novel for the YA market. It exposes the carnage and horror of a WW1 battlefield without going into extreme, graphic descriptions. The novel deals with soldiers, of course, but also depicts some conscientious objectors experience of the war. In light of the horrific loss of life, one can't help but wonder if more lads had declined to participate in it, if the political masters and generals might've had to rethink their strategies. A very accessible book about WW1 from an NZ perspective for both the younger, and upper end, of high school. David Hill is a master craftsman.
• 
  Isabelle

  A great well written book about the first world war, telling the story of two brothers, one wishing to enlist and take part in the great war, wanting to go for an adventure, even though aware at the same time that it's not going to be all fun, and his brother who refuses to take part in the war, becomes a conscience objecter and end up at the front too.
  The book has letters and narrative. Good role modelling for children learning to write.
  Why can't we find these books, written by New Zealand Authors, in Public Library?
  I also wish there had been a few historical notes at the end of the book to talk more about detail such as what really happened to the Conscious Objectors. Even though they are treated badly in the book they are not executed, but maybe that was what happened in other armies, such as French and British?...
  A book well worth a read.
• 
  Megan

  OK - so, to go over the star ratings, 4 stars means I REALLY LIKED THIS BOOK. And I did really like this book. Quite a lot. If I could give a 4.5.....
  
  This book is an amazing journey. Set in New Zealand, in 1917, it is the story of two brothers, and the choices they make once the
  1916 Conscription Law is passed. Older brother, William, enlists and younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector. (After two years of having their young men go to war, never to return, there were plentiful objectors to conscription, as can be seen in this
  Te Ara photo and article .) Because of their disagreement, the two brothers have not spoken for over a year.
  
  
  William is treated as a hero by many of the townsfolk, and Edmund as a coward - although there are people along the way who quietly sympathise with his view and support him. Their mother and sister, left at home, have to cope with this view of the boys, and there are a few allusions to how difficult this could be, at times.
  
  There are seven sections to the book: At First, Before Sailing, On Ship, Getting Ready, The Trenches, First Attack, Second Attack. The boys' parallel journeys are told in each section both with an authorial bird's eye view from each character, and through letters from Edmund and William, home.
  
  Something I really did like about the book was the length of time it took for the characters to begin to question their views about wars and the army. There's no sudden revelation, and in the end there is not one right view.
  
  In the trenches, Edmund has been refusing to obey any army commands. The trouble is, it is hard to decide what is a command and what is humanity and compassion. Edmund, unlike Archie, decides that he will choose to be humane and help the stretcher bearers bring in the wounded from No Man's Land. One of the men asks Edmund which 'lot' he is with:
  
  Edmund shook his head. "I'm a conscientious objector. The army put this uniform on me." The soldier who'd offered him the cigarette glared. "So why are you doing this, if you've got such high and might ideas about war?"
  "My ideas aren't high and mighty," Edmund told him. "They're just mine. And I'm doing this to try and save lives, instead of destroying them."
  The man who'd challenged him was silent. What a time to be having a discussion like this, Edmund thought. He almost laughed, and felt a shudder run through his aching body. He was close to breaking point. he and most of the others around him. How much more of this could a human being stand?
  
  The descriptions of the trenches and life in the army for both William and Edmund are heartbreakingly realistic. Anyone who has read Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - will understand the true horror of the Battle of the Somme. And, of course it brought to mind 'Dulce et Decorum est':
  DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN
  
  Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
  Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
  Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
  And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
  Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
  But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
  Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
  Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
  
  
  Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!---An ecstasy of fumbling,
  Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
  But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
  And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
  Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
  As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
  
  
  In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
  He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
  
  
  If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
  Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
  And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
  His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
  If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
  Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
  Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
  Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,---
  My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
  To children ardent for some desperate glory,
  The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
  Pro patria mori.
  
  'This item is from The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, University of Oxford (
  www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit); © [Copyright notice]'.
  
  David Hill says he was inspired to write this book after reading 'We Will Not Cease' - Archibald Baxter. I feel the need to go and read that now. I finished reading this book on
  ANZAC day - a day here in New Zealand where we remember those who have fallen in battle, which felt kind of appropriate.
  This book will provoke some intense discussion in classrooms, no doubt, alongside the opportunity to really do some research into those who went to war, or those who stayed behind, using primary source and secondary source material. I know it will enhance the understanding of ANZAC day for many of the people who read it, as well as encouraging some critical and reflective thinking about war.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Kat

  Brilliant! I couldn't put it down, well, except for sleeping last night. I can't remember the last time I finished a book within 24 hours. still love David Hill's writing.
• 
  Lara Pearce-Tripp

  Not a genre I read, however I throughly enjoyed this book.
• 
  Kathleen Dixon

  I go through phases where I'm keen to read novels about war, and then I get so I don't want to go near one ever again. I've been like this ever since I was a high school student and read some half-dozen novels set in the First World War (which I would have told you, if you'd asked, were written by J.B. Priestley, but I think my memory must be faulty because I can't find record of anything like that written by him). My periods of not-wanting to read war novels are usually several years long, and as I read a couple of excellent children's novels two years ago I was still in a no-go zone. Now, what were they ....? Oh yes -
  A Rose for the Anzac Boys,
  Donkey Who Carried the Wounded: The Famous Story of Simpson and His Donkey - A True Anzac Legend. So anyway, I felt dismay when I realised that one of the NZ Post Children's Book Awards finalists was about WWI. But a challenge is a challenge, and I had challenged myself to read all the books listed.
  
  I was more than pleasantly surprised. This book is beautifully written. It tells the stories of two New Zealand brothers - one is eager to enlist and go to fight for the British Empire, the other is a conscientious objector. I've read quite a bit about the latter, including books by and about
  Ormond Burton, a Methodist minister who went to war in 1914 but became a conscientious objector in the 2nd World War (and was subsequently treated appallingly by the church). I hope that I'd have the courage to stand up for my principles in the same way.
  
  So, to get back to this book - the author pulls no punches. Man's inhumanity to man is fully felt, but so also do we meet some true goodness and genuine brotherhood. They say that war brings out the best and the worst in us, and this truth is so strongly shown in this novel that takes us from small town New Zealand to the trenches in France. The brothers take turn about to tell their tales, and as they experience life and death they are both led to question their beliefs and consider deeply what it means to accept other's differences.
  
  This is a well-written and deeply engrossing story. Excellent!
• 
  Bridget

  Exactly as you would expect from David Hill this the engaging story of two brothers, one keen for the excitement and caught up in the fervour of patriotism of war and the other who is a pacifist and not willing to take orders from the military machine. In the build up to war their beliefs have driven them apart although they remain fond of each other and brothers to the end. The horrors of war are very well described, young people will learn what it was like to be in the raging battlefields. The language the brothers use is of its time and it may take young readers a few pages to get used to that, but this is a great book. I feel like giving David Hill a list of all the things my boys at school like to read about, so that he can write a book for them on each of them. It is a book with heart, and that is always a winner for me.
• 
  Holly

  A superb, can't-put-it-down book that teems with obvious meticulous research into WW1, especially from the NZ perspective. I like how, unlike other books I read set in WW1, David Hill also considered the viewpoint and experience of a conscientious objector, which you don't really get in books set during this historical time period. If there was anything I could change, it would be to make the book longer and slower-moving (it moved very fast), and allow the reader to have a breather and insight into what the characters are feeling at this point in time. I felt like we just had an overview of the characters' progress in development and viewpoint.
  
  Otherwise, a really fantastic, highly recommended book for those who are interested in books, especially YA, set in World War One.
• 
  Nova

  WW1 is raging in Europe and two NZ brothers get caught up in it. Despite his mother being a widow, William feels it is his duty to fight and volunteers for the army. Edmund, on the other hand, is a conscientious objector, and refuses to obey any order from any organisation that is intent on killing others. He is conscripted but maintains his stance, despite being mocked, bullied and sent to the front. David Hill does a great job of describing the brothers' relationship to each other. At the beginning of the book they don't talk to each other at all, but their very different experiences of war, give them an understanding and empathy of each others' beliefs regarding war. The ending is very believable and poignant.
• 
  Josephine

  A light historical-fiction book on World War I in New Zealand. The narrative shifts between two very different brothers: one is enthusiastic about fighting the Germans, while one isn't. I read on another review for this book that My Brother's War would make a good addition to a middle school history class, and I agree: it's not fact-heavy, but you do get a sense of what trench warfare was like, as well as the consequences of refusing to fight back in the early half of the 20th century. (posted)
• 
  Angela

  A New Zealand story that explores the grim realities of WWI through the experience of two brothers, one a soldier who signs up for voluntary conscription, eager for an adventure, the other a conscientious objector who is sent to the front as punishment for his resistance. This book is pitched perfectly for young readers. The story is engaging, a page turner. The description of the battle in no-man's land is particularly gripping, giving a scary sense of what it was like to have fought at the front in WWI (tanks, trenches, explosions, impenetrable bales of barbed wire....argh!).
• 
  Miss Wilson

  Since I've read widely around war (non-fiction and fiction) I found myself far more interested in Edmund's storyline than William's. It was nice that many nuances of trench/army life were included from white feathers to inadequate resources spanning the time period before and during the war.
  A brilliantly unbiased view of war, with ironic outcomes.
• 
  Wednesday

  Probably the best NZ book I have read in a long, long time. Loved it so much I gave a copy to my teenage son, who is a non-reader, and he read it cover to cover and was equally as impressed.
  A really interesting approach to the ideologies present in war and very thought provoking. It would be a great discussion starter for WWI studies in year 10. Hope to see it in the NZ curriculum soon.
• 
  Karen

  Good theme for a children/YA book and great way to introduce some interesting history to this age group.
• 
  Margaret

  young adult fiction, still great for adults
  currently reading it aloud to 9/10 year olds
  intelligent, engrossing, informative book
• 
  Wilma

  Great for young readers. Full of facts. Frustrated that the letters had no dates.