Two young Australian men, Bluey and Dusty, are waved off with much cheering. They have joined up with the Australian Light Horse to fight in the war in Europe. However, they arrive instead in Egypt where their training continues for some months within sight of the ancient pyramids. Finally, they board another ship bound for Gallipoli where they are to fight a new enemy, the Turks, on their own homeland. And on 25 April 1915, Bluey and Dusty became part of the ANZAC force assault on the Gallipoli peninsula.
The eight-month long Gallipoli campaign was hard fought in extreme conditions. The rugged cliff face terrain was impossible, disease was rife in the harsh climate and throughout the Turks had the advantage in their cliff-top position. Though the author, Kerry Greenwood, takes a gentle balanced approach to the narrative, nothing is avoided. Gallipoli heroes Simpson and his donkey, Duffy, are introduced when Dusty is shot and they rescue him. We learn that Simpson and Duffy are killed the next day. Bluey and Dusty both suffer disease and injury, Bluey losing a leg. The fighting is punctuated by the occasional break that allowed both sides to bury their dead and to meet and swap gifts of food instead of bullets.
This is an easy-to-read narrative about Gallipoli that deals with the trauma and the difficulties in an understated style. It introduces the ANZAC legend, of what it meant to go to war weaving through the ideas of bravery, courage and in particular, ‘mateship.’
The artwork in pencil and watercolour that matches the gentle narrative. The colour palate of warm browns and blue skies presents a clean friendly tone that does not always seem to be in keeping with the realities of war. The strong friendship between Bluey and Dusty is however apparent in the illustrations. Sepia photographic style illustrations are Interspersed throughout the book and the book’s endpapers present a collection of similar sepia tone photo style illustrations in the front of the two mates at Gallipoli and at the back of happier times including one colour photo of a red-headed child.
At the end we learn that Bluey and Dusty, mates at Gallipoli, become lifelong mates—marrying and having families. This happily-ever after ending ignores the many on-going problems that resulted from the war which does a slight injustice to those who served.
Picture Books for Older Readers
