Williams (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) inventively expands on her signature comic-strip style in this oversize, paper-over-board work, ostensibly a scrapbook made by a 10-year-old Londoner between May 1914 and November 1918. With Archie’s comics at the center, its heavily collaged pages chronicle the events in the character’s own life and in the turbulent outside world. Period photos, ephemera and newspaper excerpts supplement the comics, and a timeline of WWI milestones weaves across the bottom of many spreads. Postcards and other correspondence from the front, “written” by Archie’s uncle and father, lift up or fold out from the page—one is even tucked into an envelope. One especially poignant letter, from Archie’s uncle, describes the famous Christmas 1914 cease-fire that occurred spontaneously in the trenches in France. Characters die; sustain injuries in battle; and survive explosions at home and even a bombing by Germans; but Archie, realistically, has other matters on his mind as well, like the disappearance of his dog or, more happily, learning about birds when he and his mum evacuate to the countryside in 1918. Although young “Archie’s” style doesn’t mature over the course of war, Williams otherwise maintains a child’s perspective believably enough, and her lively format will encourage even reluctant readers to take a close look at the details of a disastrous event. Ages 8-12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Dec.)

Gr 3-6-Ten-year-old Archie Albright is living in East London in 1914 when his Uncle Colin sends him a blank scrapbook that quickly becomes a chronicle of Britain's entry into World War I and its effect on the lives of ordinary British citizens. Archie's simple cartoon drawings, words, photographs, newspaper clippings, and artifacts combine to tell the story. His teenaged sister is forbidden by their father to participate in antiwar protests, reflecting the community's rising patriotic sentiment, which extends to the point of shunning neighbors of German descent. In tabloid-style entries, Archie recounts shattering events such as the death of his Uncle Teddy in battle, the bombing of a friend's street, the return of his injured brother and a shell-shocked neighbor, the departure of his family to the safety of the countryside, and, finally, armistice. Humor and pathos combine as the scrapbook becomes a personal four-year chronicle of a boy's coming-of-age amid the horrors of war. Particularly poignant are Archie's longing for word from his soldier father and his secret, conflicted confession, on a dramatic spread, that the brave German fighter pilot the Red Baron, shot down, is his new hero. The large-format pages, jam-packed with tiny colored-pencil drawings with extensive captions, detailed sidebars, and pasted-in letters and postcards, flesh out the story and characters. While some British terms and customs will be unfamiliar to American readers, this imaginative presentation of historical fiction puts them in context and provides a highly visual experience that readers will pore over again and again.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

<p>Williams departs from her familiar comic-strip style to present this lad's-eye view of the First World War, filling oversize spreads with collages of period post cards, taped-on bric-a-brac, newspaper clippings, foldout letters from the front and cartoons drawn in colored pencil. Ten years old when he receives his blank album, Archie begins by innocently introducing his extended London family, plus friends and neighbors both real and made-up. His blithe commentary darkens, though, as the war begins, comes closer with his own and other local fathers' departures for France and climaxes after long years of increasing food shortages and worry with the bombing of his best friend's street. Peace and his father do return at last, but as Archie writes in a wrenching summary letter (placed on the front endpaper): "They say that this has been the war to end all wars. Well, I hope they're right, but I don't really trust grown-ups any more." The idiom, setting and details may be British, but young Americans will have no trouble drawing parallels between WWI and the present situation. (Fiction. 10-12)</p>

Archie's war is depicted through an intriguing scrapbook, which portrays the advent, profound effects, and finally the end of World War I through the eyes of a ten-year-old English boy. Archie receives the scrapbook from his Uncle Colin as a birthday gift in 1914, and so begins the reader's journey through the everyday world of wartime and the tenacity of a playful imagination. Archie's family lives in East London where his father works at the boot factory. His mother and grandmother care for the house and his baby brother, Billy; his older siblings, Ethel and Ron; his Uncle Teddy; and his dog. Archie and his mate Tom have many adventures and even manage to survive the bombing on Tom's street. This scrapbook is able to convey the consequences of war on a family in a way that no textbook could ever manage. The author's drawings are, at points, funny but also heart wrenching. Included are wonderfully imaginative comic strips, mementoes, photos, period post cards, news clippings, cartoon characters, maps, notes, and attached letters. These bits and pieces are presented as a collage and frequently offer foldouts that will captivate the young reader as evidenced by a patron who thought that the style was "Cool!" and immediately wanted to check out the book. It would make a wonderful addition to school libraries for a fun read or excellent addition to the curriculum especially for those reluctant history students.-Ava Ehde.