One minute's silence by David Metzenthen
Ill. by Michael Camilleri. Allen & Unwin, 2014. ISBN
9781743316245.
(Age: 9+) Recommended. Picture book, World War One, Gallipoli,
Remembrance. Sitting in a classroom where a desultory group of young
adults must observe one minute's silence to remember those who
fought, the illustrator shows them slouched and unhappy, but the
author uses the refrain, 'in one minute's silence' to show what may
have happened to people their own age at Gallipoli in that one
minute.
Metzenthen's story tracks back and forth across the cliffs, to the
Turks uneasily waiting for the army below to climb the hills, to the
women left behind, to the Anzacs landing on the beach, the machine
gun and its impact, the burying of the dead, the packing up and
retreating. Each encounter only takes a minute, a minute in which
young men's lives are lost.
Camilleri transposes the images of the children in the class with
those of the soldiers waiting for the ships, or climbing those
hills, or waiting to be buried, making it clear to that reader that
they could easily have been there, that the one minute's silence is
a small thing to do to say thank you.
The procession of books, particularly picture books, about
Australia's involvement in wars, has been intense, some offering a
new perspective, but all reminding students and readers of the
sacrifice made by those who volunteered to fight.
Metzenthen's story offers a truly original perspective, forcing
readers to view war from a more personal perspective. With the
illustrations offering a closely detailed image of things like the
machine gun and the bullets fired at the troops, the small vignettes
of leaving the front to evacuate along with the repetition of the
image of a clock, no reader can help but be glued to the pages.
Fran Knight