New York Public Library Selection

Stellar Book Award honour book

White pine Award honour book

"A compelling, fascinating, and ultimately disturbing book that is not to be missed." East Central Regional Library, Cambridge, MN

It's August, 1914 and Jim Hay thinks war is a glorious adventure. He can barely wait for his turn to fight, but as his father marches off to battle Jim must be content to record his thoughts and dreams in his journal. Amidst the war fever, Jim's home life suddenly becomes tragically complex and, when he does at last join up, it is as much to find a refuge as it is to seek glory. What Jim discovers in the trenches of France is enough to dispel any romantic view of the war. Soon his longing for adventure is replaced by a basic need to survive, and the final tragic outcome, as Kitchener's New Army goes into battle on July 1, 1916, is one he never could have imagined.

"Wilson brilliantly captures the thoughts, feelings, and naivete' of a young man caught up in a conflict he does not fully understand and is ill prepared to face. The format effectively draws readers into the narrative, and characterization is solid throughout. Historical anecdotes lend even more somber realism to the story. Jim's growth as a human being, his increasing self-awareness, and, especially, his shocking fate are not soon forgotten. A compelling, fascinating, and ultimately disturbing book that is not to be missed." Robert Gray, East Central Regional Library, Cambridge, MN

"Although this novel focuses on World War I, it's a timely reflection on the realities of war that presents a powerful, timeless anti-war argument…the diary form lends immediacy and intimacy to the gripping story, which Wilson has based on actual diaries kept by members of the Highland Light Infantry." Connie Fletcher

The Caught in Conflict Collection is an imprint of fast-paced, historically accurate, morally-complex quick reads for Adults and Teens. In each of the titles the main character(s) (a Roman Legionary; a civilian in the Indian Mutiny; volunteers on both sides of the American Civil War; a Scottish soldier in WWI; a holidaymaker in Spain when the civil war breaks out there; and German and Russian soldiers in WWII), become enmeshed in conflicts immensely more complex than they anticipated and are faced with moral dilemmas that they never even imagined. The historical background to each of the dramas is extensively researched and the moral dilemmas are common to all human conflict.