Do Not Forget Australia

by Sally Murphy, Sonia Kretschmar (Illustrator)

Do Not Forget Australia gains its name from the yellow sign in the playground, at Villers-Bretonneux, the message is repeated in both English and French through the classrooms of this symbolic school.

Genres: War, Historical, Australia, Picture Books

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 8, 2012

About the author

Sally Murphy is an Australian author of over 30 children's books. She's also the slightly crazy mother of six beautiful kids. You'll find bits of her buried somewhere in every one of her books. She loves reading, writing, and speaking about reading and writing.

PEARL VERSES THE WORLD won the 2010 Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature as well as the 2010 Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award for Best Book for Language Development. It was also an Honour Book in the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards.

TOPPLING won the children's book category of both the Queensland and Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, and was short-listed in the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards.

Reviews

[Sonya Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent piece of narrative nonfiction, about two boys on opposite sides of the world during the First World War, their lives linked by one boy’s soldier father.

I liked the way the story moved back and forth between France and Australia, showing that this truly was a global conflict, and showing that people who lived rather insular lives in the past had their eyes opened to people thousands of miles away.

I think the historical facts were woven in well, so that we see the boys survive the war in different ways and then grow up to see their world (for the time being) repaired.

There’s extra information at the end for adults to help explain the situation in greater context.

[Elkaza · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great living book for kids, which explains why the French village – Villers-Bretonneux, loves the Australian Solders who in World War 1, which formed a relationship, that is still strong. Since, after the war, the state of Victoria raised money, to help build the village, after the war.
Hence, a great book for parents to read to there children, about why the French loves Australian Soldiers.

Great illustrations as well, to go along with story.

[Mary Refalo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Do Not Forget Australia is an account of the participation of Australian soldiers fighting on French battlefields during World War I. The story links two boys of similar ages: Henri in the French village of Villers-Bretoneux, and Billy in Melbourne. Some elements of the story are a bit predictable and the narrative relatively simple. However, the picture book would be well-suited in a unit on integrated studies about World War I, other aspects of history, or a study of the way World War I has been represented during the centenary of war. I think it is best suited to below stage readers.

[Meghan Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations don't save this story about Villers-Bretonneux from being clunky and overly didactic. Might be useful for introducing a WWI history unit but doesn't stand on its own merit.