A Rose For The Anzac Boys

A Rose for the Anzac Boys is a book written by Jackie French, an Australian author. The novel follows the adventures of Midge Macpherson, a teenager from New Zealand who desperately wanted to help with the war effort. As both her brothers were at war she attended an English boarding school where she met Anne and Ethel. All three of them travel to a railway station in France where they set up a canteen to feed hungry soldiers who come in on the trains.

I think a very important decision that was made in the story was when Midge decided to take over driving the ambulance. It gave Midge many opportunities and would have changed the outcome of the end of the book if she had turned down the job.

Midge had been offered the opportunity to drive the ambulance because the usual driver’s (slogger) hands were very raw and were causing her very much pain. I think Midge was very eager to get to drive because she had mentioned at the start of the book that she would like to but she is too young. Her age was the main factor that made her open the canteen as she was not old enough to do anything else to help in the war. She also wanted to be able to travel round and see the wounded soldiers, not only to help them but to get information about her twin, Tom, who is a missing soldier.

Another significant event that happened because of Midge’s decision to be a driver was when Anne was injured by shrapnel while helping Midge. She had been walking in front of the ambulance with a lantern as it was too dark to see when an aircraft had dropped some explosive cargo by where Midge and Anne were with the ambulance. Shrapnel had got Anne, all over her face and her whole face was scarred. That must have been very hard for Anne because she was always very conscious of her appearance as she had had pimples up until recently so she was very disheartened because of her scars. Anne showed this in her letter to Midge, where she seemed sad and angry, she also included at the end “Don’t