Zero Hour, by Leon Davidson (Text Publishing, RRP $25):
Leon Davidson is one of those rare authors who can write good non-fiction for young adults that makes history both real and engaging.
His first book, Scarecrow Army, was about the Anzacs at Gallipoli and won the NZ Post Children and Young Adult non-fiction category in 2006. He followed that up with a book on the experiences of Kiwis and Aussies during the Vietnam War (Red Haze, published 2006) but has revisited the World War I again for this latest offering, Zero Hour.
Anzac soldiers on the Western Front are again the subject, and he’s managed to put the reader right in the thick of the nightmarish action.
When the Anzac troops arrived in the trenches in 1916 the fighting had already been going on for 18 months and there was no end in sight.
This is a great read that tells the story of an important time in our history and will appeal to a readership beyond it’s young adult target market.