Product Description

Charlie Wilcox, a Newfoundlander, is interested in one thing only: going to sea, just like his father and uncles. He'll make his family proud. His parents have different plans for him, however: they want him to go to university.

Humiliated, Charlie sets out to prove he can measure up to the men in his family, and stows away on a sealing ship. It's only when they are far out to sea, and he is discovered, that he realizes he's on a troopship bound for France!

Alone in Europe, he manages as best he can. He finds a regiment of fellow Newfoundlanders, and because he's too young to fight he works as a stretcher bearer instead. The trenches along the front lines of the Somme are no place for anyone, but especially for a kid, and it's very hard not to be afraid. Especially on the morning of July 1, 1916, when Charlie's friends are ordered out of their trenches and over the top, and the German guns are waiting for them...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206260 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-11
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .50" h x 4.46" w x 7.08" l, .30 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 240 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-A riveting story of friendship, loyalty, bravery, and honor. Despite being born with a clubfoot, 14-year-old Charlie is determined to "go to the ice" as a seal hunter off the coast of his native Newfoundland just like his father. However, his parents want him to have a better life and plan to send him to college. Determined to prove his courage, Charlie runs away and sneaks onto what he believes to be a sealing ship, but is actually a boat carrying soldiers to England to fight in World War I. While waiting for passage home, he works as an orderly at a makeshift hospital in France and sees the grisly results of the fighting. When his ticket finally arrives, he gives it to a friend whom he believes needs it more. Charlie heads for the front, where he witnesses the carnage of trench warfare during the Battle of the Somme. After helping to save another friend's life, he joins a mobile-hospital unit and remains with it until the end of the war. Although the story begins slowly, once the action starts it never lets up. The characters are so finely drawn that readers come to know them well and understand their thoughts and actions. The chapters on the war leave no doubt as to the horrors encountered by the soldiers and those who cared for them. There are no glorified heroes here, only ordinary people caught in extraordinary events doing what they believe to be right.
Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Sharon McKay is an award-winning author of many books for parents and children, including Penelope from the Our Canadian Girl series. Her first young adult novel, Charlie Wilcox, won the Geoffrey Bilson Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award. Charlie Wilcox's Great War, the sequel, was nominated for a 2003 Red Maple Award. Esther, her most recent novel for young adults, was shortlisted for a 2004 Governor General's Award.