A wartime classic from two legends of children's literature! When John McCrae wrote his famous poem "In Flanders Field" among the trenches of war-torn Belgium, neither he nor a local village girl who saves a discarded draft of it could know what enormous power that poem would have on generations to come.

More than 20 years after publication of the classic NZ story, The Bantam and the Soldier, Jennifer Beck and Robyn Belton have joined forces again to produce another heartwarming story from the First World War.

This time it’s the true story of Otago’s Alexander Aitken and the violin that travelled with him on his wartime journey, bringing music and solace to his fellow ANZACs.

It's 1945, and the world is in the grip of war. Hideki lives with his family on the island of Okinawa, near Japan. When WWII crashes onto his shores, Hideki is drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps to fight for the Japanese army. He is handed a grenade and a set of instructions: Don't come back until you've killed an American soldier.

Ray, a young American Marine, has just landed on Okinawa. This is Ray's first-ever battle, and he doesn't know what to expect–or if he'll make it out alive. He just knows that the enemy is everywhere, with ambushes and dangerous traps. But then the two of them collide in the middle of the battle...and choices they make in that single instant will change everything.

Alan Gratz, New York Times best-selling author of Refugee, returns with this high-octane story of how fear and war tear us apart, but how hope and redemption tie us together.

Who knew our soldiers had such a variety of animal companions in the two world wars?

Apart from the ‘beasts of burden’ that one might expect, such as horses, mules, donkeys and camels, many battalions had mascots as well: kangaroos, monkeys, dogs, chickens, tortoises, cats… all of whom provided comfort, companionship and a welcome distraction from the war.

Inspired by the extraordinary works of Australian artists painting the First World War as it happened around them, this evocative book commemorates and explores the sacrifice of the soldiers, nurses who served and the families at home waiting for their return. Illustrator Simon O’Carrigan has worked with war museum collections to curate, collate and recreate the original art to produce heartbreaking illustrations in this one-of-a-kind Anzac book. 

The next compelling chapter in the life of Felix, hero of the award-winning Once, Then, After, Soon and Now series of books.

Felix's lifelong journey comes full circle as he returns to the place we first met him in ONCE. An old man, he doesn't relish travelling all the way from Australia to Poland, but he does so for someone else, a young person only he can save. His task is tougher than he imagined and he realises he may not survive it. He also discovers that for him it's the most important journey of all.

Maybe continues the incredibly moving story of Felix, a Jewish boy who survived the Nazi persecution of World War Two to become an old man living in Australia.

The poignant story of a toy kangaroo that goes to war with a young man who doesn't come back.

When her brother, James, went to war, Annie stitched the name Digger onto her toy kangaroo and gave him to James as a farewell present.
'A Digger for a digger,' she said, hugging her brother.
'I'll keep him safe,' James promised.

Digger is the story of one toy kangaroo, one Australian soldier and two girls, in two countries on opposite sides of a world at war. It's a quiet reminder of the casualties of war, and a tribute to the French schoolchildren who once tended the graves of Australian soldiers who died on the Western Front in the heroic battle for Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918.

A beautiful and heart-warming story set during World War I.

On 11 November 1918, after four years of fighting, the Allied powers signed an agreement with Germany to end the Great War and to begin peace negotiations. The armistice, as it was known, took effect from the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. But it would be more than seven months before the Versailles Peace Treaty peace would finally be signed and peace declared on 28 June 1919.

For the war-weary soldiers who had fought in the trenches of Europe and the Middle East, the Great War was over. But the world as they had known it was changed forever. In this book many voices recall the day the fighting stopped, and the months that followed before peace rang out around the world.

Stories of hope, joy, resignation, loss and despair are told through the eyes of many different participants, including the war-wounded Adolf Hitler who vows to avenge the enemies of Germany; a young French girl who returns to find her house in ruins; and the German lawyer who sees the devastation of northern France for the first time on his way to Versailles.

Direct accounts from real participants such as 33rd President of the United States, Harry S Truman on the Western Front, World War 1 German fighter pilot ace, Herman Goring, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Supreme Allied Commander, Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch, mingle with factually-based descriptions from a host of characters, including a starving victim of the German Blockade; an angry French War veteran waiting for news of the peace negotiations; and a young girl celebrating the declaration of peace at Versailles on 28 June 1919.

The rich panoply of voices in Ruth Starke's text offers students a broad understanding of the armistice and the deep anxieties that underpinned the 1919 Peace Treaty negotiations and the future of peace in Europe and beyond. David Kennett’s arresting illustrations, with their strong compositions and dynamic use of perspective, capture the drama and tension of this tumultuous time in history and invite readers to enter into the story of one of the most significant events of the 20th century.

In 1939, 12-year-old Sasha, inspired by the words of her father, the celebrated journalist Louis Jullian, feels she must find a way to stand up to Nazi terror, in the shadow of a world at war.

Hitler’s blitzkrieg results in the surrender of France and Sasha and her family flee Paris–learning first hand the brutality of war–and how acts of resistance, no matter how small, can make a difference.

In their occupied country, fraternising with the enemy is frowned on, but necessary. It only gets more complicated when she meets Dieter, a member of the Hitler Youth and the son of her father’s best friend. How can Sasha know who to trust when the enemy becomes a friend?

A NEW SERIES FEATURING DOG! Meet Judy: an English Pointer and member of her Majesty's Royal Navy who served bravely alongside her crew during World War II. When her ship was sunk by the enemy, Judy became the only canine prisoner of war of the Japanese. This 'dog's-eye view' takes readers into the heart of the naval action of WWII and will leave you cheering for Judy and her human companions as they overcome countless obstacles.

Lying  about his age, and looking for adventure, 14-year-old Victor March enlists in the 10th Battalion of the AIF to fight in the Great War. Victor and his new mates, Fish, Needle and Robbo, are headed for the Gallipoli peninsula and into battle. He is among the first soldiers to land at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and the world as he knows it is about to change. In his diary, Victor records the horrors of war, his friendships, his  fears and the story of Australia’s most legendary military campaign. 

It’s been a disastrous day. The radio news reports that HMAS Canberra has been sunk with the loss of 819 lives and Kokoda has been lost by the Australians. Who knows where Des’s lot are? Somewhere on the mountain track between Kokoda and Port Moresby with the Japs hot on their heels.

Harold couldn’t say too much in his latest letter, but it sounds like his division is moving to New Guinea too. In his diary, Archie records his own battles at home, against the local bully, Beefy; and how Townsville copes as it becomes a base for the Pacific campaign; and the Australian east coast reels under Japanese bombs. Archie’s two brothers are fighting in the battlefields of World War II. Des has been sent with the militia to fight in the treacherous landscape of the jungles of New Guinea against the Japanese–and his brother Harold is about to join him, after surviving the campaign in the Middle East.

There is nothing between Australia and a Japanese invasion except a small band of brave soldiers, fighting rain, mud, malaria and machine guns.