A Papua New Guinean boy helps a young soldier as his village is torn apart by World War II.
Twelve-year-old Kari grew up along the banks of the Kusumi River, east of the village of Kokoda. His father taught him the traditional ways of his people, and Sister Mary taught him English at the mission schoolhouse. One day Kari s peaceful world is shattered when a bomb rips through the village of Kokoda. Kari searches among the wounded and finds a young soldier lying in a ditch. The soldier is badly hurt, but Kari will not leave him. Together they make the perilous journey to safety along the Kokoda Track. During the Pacific War of World War II, a series of battles were fought along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea. The villagers who assisted the troops became known as the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels. Using a combination of oil paintings and pencil sketches, the multi-award-winning author and illustrator Mark Wilson brings this important period of history to life in this stunning picture book for older readers.
About the Author
Highly acclaimed author/illustrator Mark Wilson's many picture books include The Penguin Shore (a CBCA Notable Book in 1996), The Castaways Of The Charles Eaton, Yellow-eye (winner of the Wilderness Society Award in 2002), the Extinction Series - I Saw Nothing: The Extinction Of The Thylacine (a CBCA Notable Book in 2004); I Said Nothing: The Extinction Of The Paradise Parot; and I Did Nothing: The Extinction Of The Gastric Brooding Frog. His most recent picture books are The Last Tree (2006) and My Mother's Eyes: The Story Of A Boy Soldier (2009). The Extinction series also won a Wilderness Society Award and a Whitley Award in 2004, and The Last Tree won a Whitley Award in 2007. Mark lives in Frankston, Victoria.
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Comments about Angel of Kokoda:
I used this book with my year 6 class (11-12 years old). We had 2 weeks of "ANZAC" books prior to our school holidays.
Half the class was in tears, me included, even though I'd read it many times to prepared myself. They were moved. The following questions, comments and discussion made me so very proud of my class.
Number Of Pages: 36
Published: 12th March 2013
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Dimensions (cm): 27.9 x 26.0 x 0.3
Weight (kg): 0.22