My Mother's Eyes

Mark Wilson (author/illustrator)

Lothian, Australia: March 2011

ISBN: 9780734411914

Genres: picture book, historical fiction

Issues: duty, family, grief, war

CBCA Notable Children's Picture Book, 2010

CBCA-Eva Pownell Award 2010, Notable

A few weeks before his sixteenth birthday, telling the recruitment officers he's eighteen, William begins basic training and writes to his family about the things he sees – and what he learns about himself.

It is 1914 and William is a farming lad who has helped his grandfather and mother run the farm since his father died. William left school at fourteen. But war breaks out and although William stays home as long as he can, he wants to help his mates defend their country, their homes, their families.

Mark Wilson is a remarkable exhibiting artist which means that his illustrative work has an unusual power and intensity. Working principally in oils and acrylics, in My Mother's Eyes, Wilson has created emotive images of the immensity of William's new world, reminding readers of the numbers of young men who threw themselves into 'the great adventure'. The contrast between the very concise, factual narrative recount and the evocative paintings is bridged by William's letters home. By looking at war through the eyes of one young man, Wilson gives a face to all the boys who lost their lives in places so very different to their homeland.