Brothers Far from Home: The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates

by Jean Little

With more than 200,000 books in print, Dear Canada has fast become the historical fiction series for young girls. It has been two long years since Eliza's beloved older brother, Hugo, went away to war. Caught up in his enthusiasm, she couldn't understand her parent's less-than enthusiastic reaction. Now that her other brother Jack has also enlisted, she yearns for the safe return of both brothers. If only she had a friend that she could talk to about...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 043996900X
• ISBN13: 9780439969000
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Scholastic Canada
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Very Enjoyable and Informative. Highly recommend reading it.

I am an adult so I found it informative. It does talk about what happens to some people during war. I am an American so I have a father who is a Vietnam Veteran. I was not born yet but my mother talked about how it was waiting for news and she had my sister without my father around. My father missed the birth by 2 days.Canada had a lot of pride participating in both WW’s. This book and others like it during this time showed the pride of having a brother/son at war. It shows the immaturity of signing up to go just because you think it is all glory and don’t think about the terrible things that happen. It also shows how cruel people could be toward men who could not go to war due to a physical issue or other reasons. How they would do things to imply the man was a coward and when it was not true. This book does contain information about the effects of Mustard Gas in the trenches used during WWI. Most of all gives a view of how waiting for love ones away in a dangerous situation can be. It also shows that just because you come back from war you can be damaged mentally, physically, and/or Spiritually. Two brothers, do they both come home? Are they both killed? Is one dead and one physically scarred? Read the book and find out.

Brothers Far From Home!

This is a breath-taking book, about a girl, Eliza Bates, whose two brothers are serving in the first world war and their huge family worrying and worrying over them. One brother dies and the other one gets injured and has to come back home. The injured brother marries and has a baby, and, after a year of writing in her diary to her "dear reader", Eliza meets her "dear reader" moving in next door. It is like Tamryn was there when her brothers were missing, far from home, and the Bates family were wondering where they were and if they were alive.