• Age: 10 to 18
• Grade: 5 to 12

Finalist, White Pine Award

Finalist, Chocolate Lily Award

Finalist, Stellar Award

New York Public Library Selection, Best Books for Teens

Fifteen-year-old Jim Hay believes that war is a glorious adventure and cannot wait for his turn to fight. But as his father boldly marches off to battle in August 1914, Jim must be content to record his thoughts and dreams in his journal.

All too quickly, however, Jim’s simple life begins to unravel. His father is killed in action, his mother suffers a breakdown and, when he does at last join up, it is as much to find refuge as it is to seek glory. What Jim discovers in the trenches of France is enough to dispel any romantic view of the war. Soon, his longing for adventure is replaced by a basic need to survive and the final tragic outcome is one he never could have imagined.

The first installment in the Fields of Conflict series, And in the Morning will appeal to young readers aged fourteen to sixteen.

John Wilson was born in 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He did his early growing up on the Island of Skye and in Paisley, near Glasgow. From 1969 to 1974, he attended the University of St. Andrews where he took an Honours B.Sc.. in Geology and never played golf once. He took a position with the Geological Survey of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In his two years there, he mapped rocks, dodged land mines and watched the country sink ever deeper into civil war. Shortly before he was due to be called into the army, John retreated back to Britain on his way to the safety of Canada. He settled on Calgary where geology was booming and the only danger was freezing to death in January. In 1979, he moved to Edmonton to take up a post with the Alberta Geological Survey. In 1988 he sold a feature article to the Globe and Mail. This fueled a smouldering mid-life crisis and he took up freelance writing full-time. With some success, John mined the experiences of his travels for articles, journalism and photo essays. He even began to express himself poetically and, with a young family, began writing children's stories. He moved to Nanaimo and then Lantzville on Vancouver Island. John has been widely published by a number of Canadian presses, with his acolades including a shortlisting for the Governor General’s Award.

John Wilson's profile page

"And in the Morning joins other outstanding novels about the First World War—an invaluable resource for libraries and classrooms." —Jeffrey Canton, Quill & Quire