''Charlie Wilcox'' is a children's novel by

Sharon E. McKay Sharon E. McKay (born 1954) is a Canadian author of novels and graphic novels for children and young adults, that often focus on children going through hardships throughout the world. She was born in 1954 in Montreal, Quebec, and earned a B.A. f ...

about a boy from Newfoundland in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. First published in 2000, the novel won the

Geoffrey Bilson Award The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers is a Canadian literary award that goes to the best work of historical fiction written for youth each year. The award is named after Geoffrey Bilson, a writer of historical fiction ...

and the Violet Downey Award. It is followed by a sequel, ''Charlie Wilcox's Great War'', published in 2003.

Plot

The book opens in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

in 1915. Charlie Wilcox's parents want him to go to college rather than become a

seal hunter Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in ten countries: United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Canada, Namibia, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Ice ...

like his father; they believe that his

club foot Clubfoot is a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. In approximately 50% of cases, clubfoot aff ...

makes him unfit for an active life. To prove his courage and ability, fourteen-year-old Charlie decides to stow away on a sealing vessel; however, he finds himself instead on a troop ship bound for the war in Europe. Rather than return, he chooses to become a stretcher bearer at the front where he witnesses the horrors of

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...

and the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

Awards

References

External links

Publisher's site
2000 Canadian novels 2000 children's books Children's historical novels Canadian children's novels Fiction set in 1915 Novels set during World War I Children's books set during World War I Children's books set in Newfoundland and Labrador Children's books set on ships Children's books set in Europe {{Canada-novel-stub