''Charlie Wilcox'' is a children's novel by Sharon E. McKay about a boy from Newfoundland in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. First published in 2000, the novel won the Geoffrey Bilson Award 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 is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

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 nine countries: Canada, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Russia, the United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska ...

like his father; they believe that his

club foot Clubfoot is a congenital or acquired defect where one or both feet are supinated, rotated inward and plantar flexion, downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. ...

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 Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from a ...

and the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

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