Review Detail

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.