{"product_id":"mckenzies-boots-by-michael-noonan-971p","title":"McKenzie's boots by Michael Noonan","description":"\u003cp\u003eReviews  Although he is only 15, tall, strapping Rod is able to talk his way into the Australian army during World War II; he joins a platoon fighting the Japanese in New Guinea. A sympathetic encounter with an enemy soldier makes him aware of their shared humanity. Some time later, Rod is killed in battle, and, as a souvenir, the Japanese take Rod's enormous boots. His outraged mates storm the camp to regain them; years later one of them realizes that the Japanese troops considered Rod a genuine hero, and that the boots were taken out of respect, not as a morbid wartime trophy. Despite effusive prose and heavy-handed symbolism, Noonan creates many scenes of graphic intensity and presents a largely glorified vision of battle. But, perhaps because he writes primarily of individual acts of daring rather than the daily horrors of infantry warfare, the focus is a boyishly old-fashioned view of fighting, oddly romantic in this post-Vietnam era. Ages 12-up. (March)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Book Express","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41811447611466,"sku":"971p","price":10.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/9101\/8826\/files\/971p_1.jpg?v=1764193115","url":"https:\/\/www.bookexpress.nz\/products\/mckenzies-boots-by-michael-noonan-971p","provider":"Book Express","version":"1.0","type":"link"}