Philippa Werry

14-year-old Beatrice Thomas loves school, but when her widowed mothers hours at the local sewing factory are cut she must find a job to help out the family and keep younger sister Tilly at school. The First World War has taken many men from the small country town overseas to fight. Beaty gets a job usually reserved for older boys, delivering telegrams for the Post and Telegraph Office. During wartime, the grimmest of news needs to be hand delivered, and the last knock people want at their door is that of a telegram delivery girl or boy with news that a loved one is missing in action, dead, or taken prisoner of war. Beaty's friend Caleb is away fighting and his letters have turned from initial excitement to the reality of soldiering, and then suddenly they stop. Beaty's delivery of telegrams continues through Armistice, peace celebrations, and the influenza pandemic. At the end of the book there is an historical note, newspaper clippings, photographs, and a section on Morse code. Another sensitively told and thoroughly researched story from Philippa Werry which would be great reading material for those students studying World War I, and those who just love a great book.… (mais)

From the My New Zealand Story series. Frances Sutherland and her family live on a remote lighthouse station. Her diary covers the years 1941 to 1942 when the threat of Japanese invasion during World War II is very real. Her best friend Violet's family have left the island, and the new family has only boys which is a disappointment. And when her mother has to leave the island due to pregnancy complications, Frances is left in charge of looking after the rest of the family single-handed and is too exhausted to worry about the threat of an invasion! A really interesting story with many important extras. A list of characters in the front, historical note, World War Two timeline, notes on the Orion, Niagara, Puriri, Japanese midget subs in Sydney Harbour, Japanese submarines in New Zealand waters, Japanese in New Zealand, Masterton earthquake, School for the Deaf, Correspondence School, Aunty Daisy, along with a map of lighthouses in New Zealand, photographs and newspaper articles round out this well-researched and useful book.… (mais)