History Year 5: ANZAC Day

Based on true events and a real-life young soldier from Dunedin named Alexander Aitken, who was a brilliant mathematician and a gifted violinist, as well as an artifact - the violin - that has survived the war and remains on display at Otago Boys High to this day.

This is a simple moving look at Anzac Day through the eyes of a little girl. It explains what happens on the day and its significance in terms that a young child can understand.

A foal is born at midnight, on the homestead side of the river. Coal black, star ablaze. Moonlight in her eyes. On October 31, 1917, the 4th and 12th regiments of the Australian Light Horse took part in one of the last great cavalry charges in history. Among the first to leap the enemy trenches was Lieutenant Guy Haydon riding his beloved mare, Midnight. This is their story.

Jimmy and Johno are best mates. The two young friends do everything together, sharing adventures and growing up side by side in the dusty cattle yards of an Australian Outback station. When World War One strikes, they head overseas to fight on the battlefields of the Western Front. Two boys from different cultures. A friendship for life.

Alfred was just a young man when he was injured and shipped home from France. Never honoured as a returned soldier, Alfred took up a solitary life walking the back roads - billy tied to his swag, finding work where he could. Alfred was a forgotten soldier. Although he had fought bravely in the Great War, as an Aboriginal man he wasn't classed as a citizen of his own country. Yet Alfred always remembered his friends in the trenches and the mateship they had shared. Every year on ANZAC Day, Alfred walked to the nearest town and quietly stood behind and paid homage to his fallen mates. Rachel Bin Salleh's poignant narrative opens our hearts to the sacrifice and contribution that Indigenous people have made to Australia's war efforts.

im, a soldier on the Western Front in World War I, is wounded while charging through No Man's Land. He stumbles into a shell crater for shelter and finds a badly wounded German soldier. The two men try to help each other, but it's Nipper, the messenger dog, whose gallantry gives them a chance for survival. A sophisticated picture book

Marcia Williams captures the Great War through a childs eyes with a fascinating fictional scrapbook including real mementos of the day.

A moving and powerful story about the meaning of Remembrance Day, drawing on the Australian and Turkish battle at Gallipoli .

John Schumann's unforgettable lyrics about the Vietnam War are etched in our memories and into our history books. Now they've been warmly brought to life by one of Australia's best-loved illustrators.

A moving story, told completely in dialogue, about a young Australian soldier in the battle of the Somme. Walking through the fields away from the front, he finds what he thinks is a stray dog, and decides to adopt it as a mascot for his company. Then he meets Jacques, the homeless orphan boy who owns the dog. The soldier realises that Jacques needs the dog more - and perhaps needs his help as well.