1. Bravery
2. Families
3. Grief
4. Historical fiction
5. Letters
6. Rural life
7. Soldiers
8. Visual literacy
9. War
10. WW1

William had left school at fourteen to help on the farm. His father had died and he worked helping his mother and Grandpa with the farm work. War though had broken out and early one morning William slipped out to join up and fight in a war on the far side of the world. He was just fifteen.

Training in Egypt William saw the troops returning from Gallipoli. There were stories of valour and heroism but there were many wounded and many died. William’s battalion though was bound for the Western Front, a place of ‘guns roaring and shells exploding’ and wounded with terrible injuries that went far beyond the physical.

Woven through the artwork are William’s letters home. These bring a deep emotional impact to the story. Mark Wilson describes the book as having three narratives. The first is the simply told tale of events. The second is William’s letters that provide a deep and personal response to the horror of war. The third is the visual narrative that contains another dimension, here we see the loneliness and isolation of the individual soldier surrounded by comrades you are reliant on yet also alone with your thoughts in an alien world.

The artwork is a mix of acrylic and Derwent pencil and collage on paper. The inclusion of the letters, and simple photographic style lead pencil sketches give a genuineness to this historic fiction. The story is open-ended we do not know what happened to William but the final emotive illustration shows his Grandpa reading a letter written just before William went into battle.

The book opens with the famous lines from Laurence Binyon’s Ode, ‘For the Fallen’ and closes with the equally famous lines from John McCrae’s poem, ‘In Flanders’ Fields’.

The Australian War Memorial lists 235 boy soldiers, Australian boys who lied about their age to join up but did not return. These are the known ones. There are probably many more. What drew them to join up, their mates, other family, the idea of a great adventure or patriotism?

Mark Wilson ‘Children in War’ series

1. Mark Wilson website. Teaching notes by Robyn Sheahan-Bright for ‘His Mother’s Eyes’ by Mark Wilson https://marklwilson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/My-Mothers-Eyes-Teachers-Notes.pdf
2. Mark Wilson website. Author’s notes for ‘His Mother’s Eyes’ https://marklwilson.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/My-Mothers-Eyes-Authors-Notes.pdf
3. Story Time with Mr D’Gluyas ‘My Mother’s Eyes, The Story of an Australian Boy Soldier’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Wnuw76_hE
4. Alphabet Soup 20 November 2012. ‘Meet the author-illustrator: Mark Wilson’ https://alphabetsoup.net.au/2012/11/20/meet-the-author-illustrator-mark-wilson/
5. Australian War Memorial ‘Collected: Stories from the Australian War Memorial. Collected Episode 32z: Boy Soldiers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2qdYSUGqHE
6. The Age 1 November 2019. Carolyn Webb ‘He hadn’t really lived: the tragedy of under-age soldiers in WW1’ https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/he-hadn-t-really-lived-the-tragedy-of-under-age-soldiers-in-wwi-20191031-p536c2.html
7. Daily Mail 25 April 2021. Peter Vincent ‘Australia’s youngest Anzacs’ … https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9502677/The-boy-soldiers-young-buy-beer-old-die-Australia-youngest-Anzacs.html
8. Affirm Press Paul Byrnes on his book ‘The Lost Boys –the underage soldiers who lied about their age to fight in the First World War.’ https://affirmpress.com.au/paul-byrnes-lost-boys/
9. Australian institute of International Affairs. Mhairi Cowden ‘Our Anzacs and Child Soldiers’ https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/our-anzacs-and-child-soldiers/