John Boileau

Amazing Atlantic Canadian Kids is an excellent non-fiction book to educate kids and adults alike of famous Canadian kids!

These kids are TALENTED, let me tell ya! I didn't know most of these stories and I was blown away. I'm super glad I picked this book up, but I kinda of wish books like this existed back in my elementary school days. Books like these would have made history way more interesting! This book includes myths of kids, stories of actual people, info about migration and more! It truly is a book for those wanting to learn.

Middle graders up to high schoolers will be the perfect audience for this book, but adults will easily be able to learn something new as well! I believe grades 6 and up would like this book, due to the complexity of the writing. But, there's nothing to say you can't have this as a bedtime read for some younger, more curious kids.

Overall this is a great non-fiction read for those avid learners!

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Nimbus Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.… (altro)

When Canada went to war in 1939, many teenage males attempted to join up. Some succeeded by forging documents, lying about their age, trying again in different cities when turned down or in the case of seamen, joining the merchant marine which had no age restrictions. This resulted in some Canadian soldiers dying in combat at the age of 15 and 16 years of age. Donald Fowler of Kingston enrolled in the Army at the age of 14. Private Alexander Rose enlisted at age 16 and was fighting in Italy when he was 17. When his parents tried to have him sent home because he was under age and had three brothers in fighting units, red tape delayed action on his case and he was killed before he could be sent home.

The book is loaded with case histories like this one. Despite the tough topic, the book is very readable.… (altro)

In 2014, the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI, I researched the war for a term paper and a museum display. Much information came to light of little known stories of the war. Of those stories I was particularly drawn to the ones about the underage soldiers who found a way to enlist and fight. A particularly poignant story was that of Herbert Bradley who joined up and fought until he was sent back home after it was discovered that he was underage. After all that, he died in 1918 of the Spanish flu at age 16.

As I was already interested in the stories of underage soldiers, I picked up "Old Enough to Fight" in part to see if the soldiers from Port Coquitlam were mentioned (they weren’t) but also in part to see how wide spread underage service was in WWI. According to Black and Boileau there were many boy soldiers who fought and the writers show us how prevalent they were as they take us through the battles that Canada fought by naming the teenagers who were there, many of whom died.

This book is not a mere catalogue of names; it shows us the boys in action, paying tribute to their contributions to the war effort. It also tells the story of Canada’s (and Newfoundland’s) war and the effect that the war had on the people of Canada and a whole generation. Canada matured as a country during the course of the war and the boys who joined matured as well. As Romeo Dellaire writes in his forward to the book, “The children involved in Canada’s War effort may have entered as innocent boys looking for adventure, honour, and purpose, but they underwent a maturation that many would not have originally anticipated.”… (altro)