This true story is about World War I from the experience and diary of 18-year-old Russell Rabjohn from Ontario, Canada. When he came of age he immediately joined the Canadian military and eventually was shipped overseas to fight. Russell began a diary September 7, 1916, which is how this book was compiled by the author who included Russell's amazing drawings.

When it was discovered that Russell was very talented at drawing, he became the official artist for the war. This book uses his diary entries in which Russell expresses his horror of things that happened. His drawings are accurate and descriptive and give the reader more understanding of warfare at that time.

This book could be used in schools in history and in art. ( )

Overall, I really liked this book, but I also had some issues with it. This book definitely fulfills its purpose of being an informational book about WW1, yet through one man's eyes and timeline. This "sketchbook" follows the life of Russell Rabjohn, a trained artist who was sent to war in 1916. During war, he was given the task of drawing dugouts, mapping trenches, and sketching graves of deceased battle mates. Due to having a sketch book on him for his job, he was able to capture what war looked like through his eyes. This book, is composed of Russell's sketches and his writing, but is edited to be more grammatically polished and put together. The book entails a lot of first-hand information, through sketches and detail. The writing flows cohesively through Russell's life - how he began, and how he lived through the war. This book would be great to do research with. The only thing that I disliked about this book, is due to my own personal preference - it is very wordy, and black and white. It was hard for me to keep track of my place while reading, due to the structure of the text and getting distracted by images. This would be an ideal book for someone conducting research or hoping to educate themselves on WWI through an artistic lens. ( )

This book was received for free from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers in return for a review.

In 1916 World War I, while raging, had devolved to attrition in the trenches. Any news received from the front for public consumption was censored, sanitized and reframed in such a way that most people on the home front had no idea what conditions were really like. Fortunately soldiers kept diaries, providing first-hand accounts of their own experiences. RH Rabjohn was one such soldier, signing up at 18 with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. In possession of an arts background he put his skills to use, illustrating what he saw, seeing action in such battles as Vimy Ridge, Arras and Passchendaele.

His drawings have a kinetic feel to them, most with figures in motion whether on the clock or on leave. But he doesn’t shy away from death or the aftermath of battle. These scenes provide a real sense of the horror he and others must have experienced, a true telling of the cost of war.

The book is divided up chronologically in terms of battles and locations, allowing the reader to see what Rabjohn did and where he was. This is further divided into categories such as “mud” and “POWs”. The book is clearly an abridged version of the diary but it’s unclear if only sections with accompanying illustrations were included or if the choice was random.

One confusing aspect was the font choice. Alongside the diary entries are additional notes written by the book’s author. The entries though use a more modern font while the author’s contributions look more archaic. Normally I would have expected this to be reversed to reflect and reinforce the differing time periods in which Rabjohn and Wilson wrote. The fact that this isn’t the case, sometimes led me to start reading Wilson’s portions as if they were Rabjohn’s.

Overall an enjoyable read that provided a personal look into one soldier’s experiences, peeling back the layers of time on events quickly receding into history. ( )

This was an interesting glimpse into the life of a WWI soldier with artistic training. It resulted in sketchbooks full of war life, and the things he saw. Set against this backdrop, Wilson provides historical context and translation, letting the reader fully appreciate the situation that the soldier found himself in. It was a quick, but satisfying read. Two minor quibbles: Many of the photos weren't labeled, and I found myself wanting more details, and also I wanted to know more about the soldier after WWI ended. Who did he marry? Where did he live? What did he do with his art skills? ( )

Just when you think there cannot possibly be anything new to be added to the discussion of the horror of World War I, along comes a gem like this. R. H. Rabjohn was only 18 years old in 1916 when he joined the Canadian army to go fight in Europe. Born and raised in Toronto, he had been drawing since he was 10 years old. He was a student at the Ontario College of Art before he joined up. Although he was a private his talents were recognized in the army and some of the time he was given official drawing and painting assignments. He also put in lots of time as a regular soldier and he took part in the Battle of Passchendaele which started in the summer of 2017 but was still going on in October when Rabjohn's unit joined the fight. He had some close calls and many of his comrades were killed or injured but Rabjohn was lucky. Throughout it all Private Rabjohn kept his diary and made drawings of what he saw. These drawings are so vivid that you can almost think you were there.

John Wilson has done a great job of fleshing out the details given in the diary and the sketches with information about what was going on elsewhere. I have one minor cavil: all the measurements Rabjohn used were in Imperial terms because, of course, the metric system had not been adopted. Wilson has added the metric equivalent in square brackets which I think is unnecessary and disturbs the flow of the writing. Perhaps it was done because the audience for this book is young people and they might not recognize the Imperial units. Personally I think it could be a good teaching exercise to have the young readers learn about other systems of measurement and conversions between them.

Still this is a remarkable work and I think adults, as well as young people, could get a great deal out of it. ( )