• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Short-listed for the 2009 Red Maple Award for Non-Fiction, OLA Forest of Reading and commended for the 2009 OLA Best Bets
This book presents the story and issues of the First World War in a clear, concise and objective manner, accompanied on every page by photographs, original sketches or maps. Focussing on social as well as political issues with a Canadian perspective, Wilson presents the issues of the war with depth and compassion. This book will be a very useful tool for educators in explaining the hows and whys of this most important period.

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

• Short-listed, Red Maple Award for Non-Fiction, OLA Forest of Reading
• Commended, OLA Best Bets

"A bracingly critical perspective. With a few deft sentences he lays out the story in a way that doesn't overwhelm the emotions of his young audience, but provides the context they'll need to read an interpret more advanced works in the future."

Quill & Quire

"John Wilson.is a gifted writer whose prose.makes history meaningful and relevant. An excellent introduction to the First World War. Highly Recommended."

CM Magazine