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Soldier Boy (The True Story of Jim Martin, The Youngest ANZAC)

Soldier Boy (The True Story of Jim Martin, The Youngest ANZAC)

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Soldier Boy (The True Story of Jim Martin, The Youngest ANZAC)

Author(s)

Anthony Hill

Publisher

Penguin Australia

Genre(s)

Historical Fiction

Age Range

10+

Release Date

July 13, 2011

ISBN

978-0-14-100330-6

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On the 28 June 1915, young James Martin sailed from Melbourne on the troopship Berrima-bound ultimately, for Gallipoli. He was just fourteen years old.

Soldier Boy is Jim's extraordinary story, the story of how an inexperienced and enthusiastic school boy became Australia's youngest known ANZAC. Four months after leaving his home country he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many soldier boys who travelled halfway around the world for the chance of adventure.

This is, however, just as much the story of Jim's mother, Amelia Martin. It is the heartbreaking tale of the mother who had to let him go, of his family who lost a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend. It is about Amelia's boy who, like so many others, just wanted to be in on the action.

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Sad because its a true story

August 23, 2012

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Soldier Boy is about a young BOY called James Martin (aka. Jim Martin), who decides to take his father's place as a soldier in the army in World War 1. At the age of 14, he enlists for the Australian army and heads of to Egypt, then on to Gallipoli. He then fought it out in the trenches, but then was succumbed to typhoid. He was sent onto a hospital ship in a bad way, and died of a heart failure an hour after being emitted. He was only fourteen and nine months when he died, the youngest ANZAC ever. Soldier Boy is his story, how he was born, how he lived and how he died.

I think it must of been hard for the author to gather enough information about this soldier boy, as he lived for such a short time, and many items have been lost or destroyed. It would of been hard to write a proper story without messing up the facts, so this story is a mixture of the facts and what Jim probably felt, but no one will ever be sure.

This book is written in a funny way, half way into Jim's mind, and half floating above him, watching he slowly die from the disease raging inside him. Facts and a tiny bit of fiction combined create an interesting story.

Anthony Hill has done it, and now Jim Martin will never be forgotten.