The Lily Pond by Annika Thor

The Lily Pond is the second of four books by Annika Thor that tells the story of the Steiner sisters. However, this short novel focuses mainly on thirteen-year-old Stephanie as she moves to the mainland to attend school in Goteborg, Sweden. It is an exciting time for Stephanie because she will be boarding with Dr. Soderberg's family. This means living in the same house as Sven, their eighteen-year old son, whom Stephie likes very much.

Stephanie is accompanied by Aunt Marta to Goteberg and to the Soderberg's home, a four story yellow brick building. The Sodeberg's have a beautiful home with "elegant rugs" and "antique furniture". Stephanie is to room in the bedroom of the Soderberg's daughter, Karin who has married. The room has beautiful white furniture, a small mirrored dressing table, a bed with a pink bedspread and a spacious closet. It also has a door that connects to Sven's room next door. 

The first evening Stephanie is invited to dinner with Dr. Soderberg and his wife. But when she tells him what has happened to her own father - also a doctor - he changes the subject. Sven returns home on the Sunday evening along with his dog, Putte. He is puzzled to find Stephanie eating dinner in the kitchen with their maid, Elena and decides also to eat there. Sven also refuses his mother's invitation to accompany them as they go to pick up his sister Karin and her husband Olle, instead taking Stephanie for a walk so she knows the way to her school.

Stephanie and Sven walk through part of the city with its new theatre, art museum and concert hall. This is different from Vienna where the buildings are all very old. Still Goteberg brings back memories of Vienna, with its trams and cobblestone streets, its shops and tall buildings. Sven shows her the Girls Grammar School she will attend and they then go to a lily pond. The small pond has white water lilies but also red lilies further out, along with swans and ducks. Sven warns Stephanie that some teachers are supportive of "the new German order". 

At school Stephanie is in a different class from her island school mates, Ingrid and Sylvia. Her homeroom teacher is Hedvig Bjork, who will teach math and biology. Stephanie takes an instant like to Ms. Bjork who is friendly and enthusiastic.

After a half day of class, Stephanie makes a new friend in May Karlsson and they agree to sit next to one another in class. May explains the tram lines to Stephanie, telling her that she lives in Mayhill. The two girls also have Miss Fredriksson for history and Christian studies and Miss Krantz for German. Miss Krantz admonishes Stephanie for speaking Viennese German insisting that the only German that will be spoken in her class is that spoken in Berlin, the capital of the Reich.

Stephanie's school is very near to Sven's boy's school and boys often wait outside the school fence for girls. Two girls, Lilian and Harriet are the only girls in Stephanie's class who have boys waiting for them. While everyone wants to be in Lilian and Harriet's circle of friends, May doesn't and neither does Alice Martin, an unfriendly classmate whom Stephanie has been trying to befriend. When Lilian and Harriet talk about their boyfriends and love, Stephanie believes they don't know what it is to be in love like she does. Unfortunately, Stephanie is confusing Sven's friendship for something more.

Stephanie continues to visit Aunt Marta and Uncle Evert, and she also visits Vera who is interested in life in a city like Goteberg. Unlike Stephanie who wants to become a doctor, Vera dreams of marrying a wealthy man to save her from poverty. Visits to the island reveal that Nellie is losing her ability to speak German and is losing her Jewish faith. This is evident from a second visit when Nellie wonders if God isn't helping their parents because they are not Christians.

When Stephanie returns to school after her weekend visit, Harriet and Lilian question her as to the identity of the handsome boy who met her at the school gates. Stephanie lies to them, telling the two girls she and the boy are "going steady". It is a lie that leads to more and more lies. 

In addition to all this, Stephanie must deal with the uncertainty of her parents situation as Jews in occupied Austria. As conditions deteriorate more and more for the Jews in Austria, her parents find themselves increasingly restricted in where they can work and shop. Desperate to leave Austria for the United States, they attempt to obtain exit visas. Just when things seem to be working to their advantage, Stephanie's mother becomes ill with pneumonia and cannot travel. Stephanie is experiencing her own crisis when she is accused of cheating and then makes a shocking discovery about Sven. But just when she's about to give up on her dreams, true friends come to the rescue, leaving Stephanie hope for a better future.

Discussion

The Lily Pond is the second novel in the series about two sisters who were part of the transport of five hundred Jewish children to Sweden at the onset of World War II. While the main story focuses on Stephanie's day to day life at the girls grammar school and her struggles as a teen refugee during war, Annika Thor also hints at the broader events occuring in Nazi Germany through letters by Stephanie's parents. 

As an Austrian-Jewish refugee now living in Sweden, Stephanie must adapt to life in a very different culture. Although Stephanie is flourishing academically, she is struggling to deal with the many situations a young teenage girl encounters. She has moved from an island where she's only lived a year to a new city where she knows no one. Fortunately, Stephanie makes a good friend in May Karlsson who lives in the poorer Mayhill district. May's large family are welcoming towards Stephanie and are very sympathetic to her situation. 

Life with Soderberg family is also challenging as it brings back  memories of Stephanie's own family. However, unlike Stephanie's own parents, the non-Jewish Soderbergs who live in a large home with a maid, remain relatively untouched by war at this point. And like many Swedes, they do not yet understand what is really happening in Europe. This is seen by Mrs. Soderberg's insensitive remarks to Aunt Marta when she complains about rationing and how the fishermen have it lucky. Mrs. Soderberg doesn't understand the risks that people like Marta's husband, Evert are taking navigating in waters with mines. 

When Stephanie attempts to tell Dr. Soderberg about her own father and how he has had his medical practice taken away by the Nazis, he quickly changes the subject. They do not know that her father has lost his practice and is now working in a Jewish hospital that has few medicines to treat the Jewish patients. Her mother, once a fashionable, elegant woman is now working as a maid. 

Stephanie is further humiliated when she is asked to stay at the Soderberg's home during a weekend instead of returning to the island as the Soderberg's are having a dinner party. Stephanie who has attended her parent's dinner parties in Vienna, believes she will be part of the dinner but instead is stunned to learn that she will be serving at the dinner. Even worse she is introduced to the guests as a refugee. 

The Soderberg's inability to comprehend what is happening to Jews in Europe is revealed at dinner after Christmas when Stephanie tells them that her parents were unable to leave for America because her mother fell ill. When Mrs. Soderberg suggests that Stephanie's mother might be able to convalese in the countryside, not understanding the situation at all, Stephanie becomes enraged. While Sven wants Stephanie to tell them what is really happening, his mother and father shut the discussion down. They do not want to face the unpleasant reality of what is happening to Jews in Europe.

Even at school Stephanie encounters prejudice. Stephanie finds that one girl, Alice Martin who is the only girl with dark hair like her, inexplicably hates her. Eventually Stephanie learns why. Stephanie makes Alice feel ashamed to be Jewish. She tells Stephanie, "My family has lived here for four generations...We've never had to be embarrassed about being Jewish. My parents and grandparents speak perfect Swedish. My father's a prominent businessman. We socialize with everyone worth knowing in this city. But now you refugees are turning up. People who have nothing, and who can't even speak Swedish. That makes it different for us, too. People might think we're like you."  Like the Soderbergs, Alice Martin and her family refuse to face the reality of what is happening.

In this way, Annika Thor highlights the plight of Jewish refugee children assimilating into a new culture without the benfit of their parents and often other Jewish children and families. No doubt these children found it difficult when their beliefs clashed with those of their foster families. During this era, there was little respect or tolerance towards the Jewish children's beliefs and often they were expected to adopt Christian beliefs. In some cases this was required for survival, as when children were given shelter in Nazi occupied areas of Europe. There can be no doubt that for many small children, as demonstrated in The Lily Pond with Stephanie's younger sister, Nellie, this caused doubt, and confusion. Stephanie's visits to the island reveal that not only is Nellie losing her ability to speak German but she is also forgetting her Jewish beliefs.

The letters Stephanie receives from her parents, trapped in Austria reveal the plight of many European Jews during the late 1930's and the early 1940s. Her parents letters reveal that living conditions are becoming desperate, with little food and medicine. Restrictions make life very disfficult for Jews. Few countries were willing to accept adult Jews, as Stephanie discovered in the first novel, Faraway Island when Aunt Marta and Uncle Evert petition the Relief Committee to take in her parents. And in The Lily Pond, as with Stephanie's parents,  those Jews lucky enough to get a visa to America or another country sometimes were unable to leave due to illness or other circumstances. And sadly that is what happens with Stephanie's mother, who is too ill with pneumonia to travel, despite having a visa to America.

Set against this larger story is Stephanie's infatuation with Sven, the son of the Soderbergs. Sven doesn't treat her like a boarder - in fact he's more like a good friend. leading the lonely Stephanie to misunderstand his kindness. Soon after she arrives as the Soderberg's home, Sven takes Stephanie to a small lily pond, where they sit and talk.  Sven is completely unaware of Stephanie's crush on him as he views her as a little sister. 

Once Stephanie begins to lie about her relationship with Sven, one lie leads to another. However, Stephanie doesn't repeat these lies to her friend May because she knows "May knows her much too well; she'd see right through her." Stephanie also begins to realize that she's going to have to continue to lie to satisfy Harriet and Lilian. "Well, that won't be difficult. She's already pictured it all in her head, images of romantic scenes that will make Lilian sigh and Harriet long to hear more...Marvelous scenes starring her and Sven..." For Stephanie, this is her chance to become a part of Harriet and Lilian's friend group and keep them liking her. It's her chance to fit in, to belong, something as a Jewish refugee she longs for. 

However, during a crisis that forms the climax of the novel, Stephanie's lies catch up with her and she receives a reality check.  Fleeing from school after being falsely accused of cheating, Stephanie sees Sven at the lily pond with his girlfriend, Irja. In a scene that is overly dramatic and probably unlikely in 1940s Sweden, a hysterical Stephanie reveals her feelings and demands Sven kiss her, which he reluctantly does.

Despite the over-the-top drama, there is a happy resolution to both the issue at school and between Stephanie and Sven, who remain friends. As an aside, while Sven apologizes to Stephanie, she never apologizes to him. Nevertheless, The Lily Pond is an interesting novel about life in 1940's Sweden. This novel also has a scene reminiscent of the Anne of Green Gables novel, when Stephanie saves May's younger sister, Ninni from a croup attack (in the novel Anne of Green Gables, Anne saves Diana Barry's younger sister Minnie May from croup).

Book Details:
The Lily Pond by Annika Thor
Delacorte Press    2011

An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

Nine-year-old Karl's mother is a nurse in an old people's home. When she has to work on weekends she often takes Karl with her to the home. Karl would bring a few friends and they would play in the park, climb trees or ride their bicycles. The old folk loved to watch Karl and his friends from the sitting room. One day in February after a heavy snow, his mother finds Karl in one of the resident's room. Lizzie was an elderly woman who often spoke about her elephant. After his mother hustles Karl out of her room, he's angry because Lizzie was going to tell him about her elephant. But his mother tells him, "There isn't any elephant" and that Lizzie imagines things. Karl however is adamant that Lizzie is not lying.

On February 13th Karl is once again at the home and visiting Lizzie. She becomes tearful when she realizes that it is February 13th.  When Karl's mom asks Lizzie if the date has any special meaning for her, Lizzie tells her that it was the day her life changed forever; "On February the thirteenth I am always sad. The wind in the trees, it makes me remember." She remembers the wind, "...a hot wind, a scalding wind... it was like a wind from the fires of hell. I thought we would burn alive, all of us." And Lizzie begins her story:

 Lizzie who was known as Elizabeth was born in Dresden, Germany on February 9, 1929. She lived in a large house with a walled garden at the back, with her Mutti (Mother), Papi (Father), and her little brother Karli who was eight years younger than her. Karli was often carried about because he was born with one leg shorter than the other and he also suffered from asthma. Their house was surrounded by many large trees and agate in the back garden led to a large, public park. Papi worked in the city art gallery where he restored paintings and he also wrote books, mostly about his favourite painter, Rembrandt. Life for Elizabeth and her family was very pleasant: boating and musical picnics in the park and on holidays, trips to Uncle Manfred and Aunt Lotti's farm. There Karli and Elizabeth often went riding on Uncle Manfred's horse, Tomi, and Elizabeth went bicycling for hours.

As she was growing up, Elizabeth saw the flags, uniforms, and marching bands. She saw the Jews "with their yellow stars sewn onto their coats" and the star of David painted on shop windows. She even saw Jews in the gutter after being beaten. But Elizabeth was more interested in bicycling and boys than in what was happening around her. On summer holidays in 1938, Elizabeth overheard her parents and aunt and uncle arguing about Hitler. While Uncle Manfred believed the government and the Jews were responsible for Germany's defeat in World War I, Mutti, who had many Jewish friends, believed Hitler was a madman who would lead the country into war. The arguments went on long into the night and in the morning her family packed their suitcases and left the farm never to return. A year later, Papi came home in uniform with the news he was being sent to France.

At this time Mutti began to work at the zoo with the elephants. Papi would return home every few months but each time he was more changed: thinner, quieter, and sad. He was sent to Russia and his letters became less frequent. As the war went badly, food was scarce and German cities were bombed. The Red Army was moving in from the east and the Allies from the west. As a result, refugees were flooding Dresden, desperate to escape the Russians. With the war lost, Lizzie and her family hoped the Allies would reach Dresden before the Russians, as they had heard terrible stories about the Red Army. 

Mutti is concerned also about a young elephant she has named Marlene. She was born about five years ago and named by Mutti after her favourite singer, Marlene Dietrich. 

 The people of Dresden worried about the bombing of their beautiful city, which so far had been spared. But the Allies where concerned that Dresden would be used as a headquarters to attack the advancing Russians and so there were rumours that a bombing was coming. Because of this Mutti and the staff of the zoo worried about what they would have to do to the animals should such a thing occur. They knew that all the wild animals would have to be shot. Karli was very distraught over this and Mutti hatched a plan to save Marelene, a young elephant.

One night Elizabeth and her brother, are surprised to see an elephant in the garden. Mutti has brought Marlene to stay with them at night. The young elephant has become increasingly distraught over the death of her mother and Mutti is trying to help the animal cope. On the night of February 13th, Elizabeth, Karli and Mutti decide to take Marlene for a walk in a nearby park. When Marlene is enraged by a barking dog, she takes off after it, leading them away from home and the center of Dresden. Suddenly, they hear the air-raid sirens and soon after the Allied bombers approaching the city. Too late for them to hide, Elizabeth, Karli and Mutti can only watch in horror as waves of Allied bombers fly over the city dropping incendiary bombs. With Dresden burning, they have no choice but to flee to the countryside to escape the flames. 

Eventually they do make it into the countryside traveling with the elephant seeking food and shelter and heading towards the west and safety. As a result of this journey, Elizabeth's family meets up with a downed Canadian airman hiding in a barn. This chance meeting changes Elizabeth's life forever.

Discussion

An Elephant in the Garden is an engaging short novel suitable for children between the ages of 9 to 12. In the novel, two children and their mother who escape from the bombed city of Dresden with a young elephant, in February, 1945. The story is told by an elderly woman, Lizzie, who is a resident of the nursing home where the narrator of the novel works as a nurse. The are lovely ink and wash sketches throughout the book, which aid in bringing the story to life.

The event the novel is based on did not occur in Dresden but in Belfast during World War II  In April and May of 1941, Belfast endured bombing by the Luftwafte in what became known as the Belfast Blitz. The bombing killed almost one thousand people and destroyed thousands of homes. Belfast was an important industrial center for the British with its shipyards, munitions and aircraft factories. During the bombing, the decision was made to euthanize the more dangerous animals of the Belfast Zoo in case they should escape into the city. While thirty-three animals were euthanized. However, zookeeper Denise Weston Austin had formed a close bond with a baby Aisan elephant named Sheila. Denise was so concerned for Sheila that, without permission, she began walking the baby elephant home to her garden in Belfast each night. Denise lived in a house called Loughview House and Sheila slept in the garage at night. Every morning the elephant was walked back to the zoo before it opened and neither staff nor the public knew of her nighttime walk. Eventually the head zookeeper discovered what was happening and he personally padlocked her cage to stop this. However, Denise would visit Sheila during the nighttime air raids to comfort the elephant. The story remained forgotten until the 1980s. Morpurgo has taken this event and set it in Dresden, to create an interesting historical fiction story.

The bombing of Dresden was a real historical event that occurred near the end of World War II.  Dresden is the capital of the German state of Saxony.  Dresden was a beautiful city but it was also a major industrial center for the Nazi war effort. It contained numerous factories that supplied munitions and other material for the Nazi war machine. The city was also an important transportation center that linked routes north-south and east-west routes. 

Dresden was bombed from February 13 to February 15, beginning with bombing by the RAF on the night of February 13th. On that date, there were two waves of bombing, three hours apart in which both explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped. These bombs would break apart the buildings and then cause them to burn. The United States was responsible for bombing Dresden on February 14 and 15th. 

The explosive bombs broke apart building while the incendiary bombs ignited fires. The resulting firestorm caused the deaths of twenty-five thousand people. The fires were so extensive and intense that they burned everything alive. The destruction of Dresden and the deaths of so many civilians has been controversial as it seemed that the bombing was done to create terror in the people rather than to destroy military and industrial targets. It is this event that forms the backdrop for the novel.

In An Elephant In The Garden, Morpurgo decided to combine the elements of these two historical events for his novel. Dresden, like Belfast had a zoo that had also issued the same order to destroy the animals if the city was bombed. He also drew on the account by the grandmother of friend's family who were refugees fleeing the advancing Russians in 1945. The grandmother's husband "...had been one of the officers who had plotted to kill Hitler in 1944, but failed. He had been executed, as they all were."  And Morpurgo added the elephant because he had "...always thought they are the noblest and wises and most sensitive of all creatures."

Morpurgo employs the "story within a story" format sometimes known as a frame narrative. The novel begins with an elderly resident of an old age home, Lizzie who repeatedly mentions her "elephant". Her nurse who is the narrator in the frame, believes there is no elephant, that it is Lizzie's imagination. But it turns out that is not the case. The nurse's son, Karl believes that Lizzie's memory of an elephant is real and together they encourage her to tell them about her memory. The novel then switches to 1945 Germany, when Lizzie, then called Elizabeth, was sixteen-years-old and along with her Mutti and her younger brother, Karli flee a burning Dresden with a young elephant named Marlene. In their journey they encounter a downed RAF pilot, Peter Kamm who is from Canada. 

Morpurgo's story focuses on Elizabeth's family's journey from bombed and burning Dresden to safety with the Allies. There is little character development as the story is event driven and the narrator, Elizabeth is a somewhat flat character. Although her Mutti and Papi are against Hitler, so much so that they are estranged from Uncle Manfred and Aunt Lotti, Elizabeth is strangely ambivalent, even for a German teenager. As a fifteen-year-old German girl it would have been compulsory for Elizabeth to be involved in the League of German Girls but there is no mention of this.

In the novel it is Mutti who struggles throughout the story. Mutti and Papi do not support Hitler. According the Elizabeth, Mutti tells Manfred "...that Hitler was a madman, that the Nazi regime was the worst thing that had ever happened to Germany, that we had many dear friends who were Jews, and that if Hitler went on the way he was going, he would lead us all into another war..."  This turns out to be exactly what happens. When the bombing of Dresden occurs, Karli wonders why the city is being bombed. Mutti tells him that the Americans and British hate the Germans because they have bombed their cities and that "...we are all responsible for making it happen, for letting it happen."

At Uncle Manfred's abandoned farm, Elizabeth and her family encounter a downed Canadian RAF soldier, Peter Kamm who has a Swiss mother and  a Canadian father. Mutti is enraged when she sees him and threatens to kill him. Peter tells her that he thought the bombing would be like what London experienced during the Luftwaffe blitz. "But last night it looked like the fires of hell. That's what we're doing in this war, all of us, on your side, on our side; we are making a hell on earth, and we do not seem to be able to know how to stop..."  Mutti is determined to sure him in the Abwehr, the police but realizes that she likely cannot prevent Peter from heading west towards the American Army. After Peter saves Karli's life after he falls through the ice on the pond, Mutti returns the favour by saving Peter from discovery by soldiers looking for the missing airman. She comes to realize that they will only survive if they all work together.

It is on their journey west towards the American army that Elizabeth and Peter begin to fall in love, Peter describes life in Canada, living in Toronto where he had worked as an actor. They eventually encounter a woman, "the Countess" whose husband had attempted to assassinate Hitler in an effort to stop the war. The Countess serves to represent those Germans who did what they believed to be right, regardless of nationality or sides in a war. She takes Elizabeth's family in to help Karli heal, then saves their lives when her servant Hans brings the German police to the house. The Countess is able to change Major Klug's mind, reminding him that the war is soon lost and that as her husband wished, a new Germany needs to come forth. The Countess knows that if Peter is arrested, and along with him Mutti, Elizabeth, Karli and the school children, they will be shot by the Germans.

Morpurgo ends his novel on a hopeful and happy note tying up all the lose ends: Peter and Elizabeth reunited after the war, married in Heidelberg and then sailed for Canada, Papi eventually returned from Russia four years after the war, Elizabeth became a nurse, Karli eventually came to Canada and Elizabeth and Peter eventually found Marlene working for a circus in Toronto. An Elephant In The Garden offers young readers a gentle introduction to the realities of war and how seeing the humanity in others, especially those who are "enemies" can create lasting healing and peace.

Historical notes on the events that formed the kernel of the story and a map at the beginning of the novel showing Elizabeth's journey would have helped young readers immensely. The lovely watercolour illustrations were a welcome addition to this novel. Highly recommended.

Book Details:
An Elephant In The Garden by Michael Morpurgo
London: HarperCollins Childrens Books 2010
233 pp.

Stolen Child by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Twelve year old Nadia Kravchuk arrives in Canada in 1950, confused and afraid. She is travelling with the only person she knows, Marusia who calls herself her mother. They have spent the past 5 years in a D.P. (Displaced Persons) camp in Austria. Once they arrive in Canada, Marusia and Nadia travel by train from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Brantford, Ontario where they are met by Marusia's husband, Ivan. Ivan has purchased land and is building a house for them so they can start a new life together.

For Nadia, it is all so overwhelming. Nadia remembers almost nothing about her past. As she settles into life in Brantford and becomes accustomed to living in a city without bombed-out buildings, Nadia begins experiencing troubling nightmares and flashbacks. These fragmented memories are often triggered by familiar sensations such as smells, tastes and even visual reminders.

When Nadia starts attending classes at Central School in Brantford, she is taunted by classmates who call her "Hitler Girl" and believe she is a Nazi. As a result, Nadia experiences shame and guilt because her memories are incomplete and seem to suggest a past that includes Nazi rallies, Hitler, black limousine's with swastikas flags and a family she doesn't really know. This causes Nadia to begin to question who she really is and to try to remember her past. Who is she? Will she ever remember?

Discussion

The reader gradually learns the answers to these questions along with Nadia through flashbacks which appear as italicized text in Stolen Child. The flashbacks are done so realistically that they often lead to more questions.

Skrypuch has written a touching novel about a very unusual and not well-known aspect of Nazi Germany - the Lebensborn program. Meaning "Fount of Life", the Lebensborn program initially focused on having German people produce Aryan children but was eventually expanded to include the poaching - kidnapping of blond, blue-eyed children from other ethnic groups, especially Poland and  Ukraine. It is estimated that at least two hundred fifty thousand children from these two countries alone were stolen. These children underwent a rigorous physical assessment and if they passed they were placed with German families to be raised as Germans.

What makes Stolen Child so effective is that it tells two stories; that of "Nadia" in 1950 trying to adapt to life as a new immigrant and that of "Nadia" the child struggling to survive the destruction of her family in war-torn Europe. Skrypuch accurately portrays the trauma Nadia has experienced: it's obvious to the modern reader that this child is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Marsha Skrypuch succeeds in educating young readers about one aspect of the Nazi eugenics program, while telling an engaging story.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is an exceptional children's author. Based out of Brantford Ontario, she has written numerous historical fiction books focusing on situations involving people marginalized by society as well those relating to the Ukraine.

Book Details:
Stolen Child by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Toronto: Scholastic Canada Ltd 2011
150 pp.

Book Review: Three Million Acres of Flame

Three Million Acres of Flame is a well written, interesting fictional account of one of Canada's great national disasters, the Miramichi Fire, which destroyed 3 million acres in New Brunswick in 1825. The story opens with the main focus on the recent turmoil Skye Haverill's family has endured with the death of their mother and the remarriage of their dad to Hannah, a young widow with a son, Stewart.
However, their lives are forever changed on October 7, 1825 when a wildfire roars through New Brunswick and devastates numerous communities including Skye's town of Newcastle (which is now part of the city of Miramichi). Skye's stepsister is born during the conflagration as were 12 other babies. The Haverill's along with virtually all of their fellow inhabitants of Newcastle lose everything in the fire. How they struggle to cope with the immediate aftermath of the fire becomes the focus of Sherrard's first historical novel. The courage, resiliency and the faith with which the townsfolk respond to their dire circumstances is vividly portrayed by Valerie Sherrard.
I enjoyed reading this book as it was well paced and has a positive ending despite the horrific circumstances. Sherrard incorporates many facts of the Miramichi Fire as well as the experiences of those who endured this tragedy to produce a novel that will make this historic event very real to young readers.
It is to be hoped that Valerie Sherrard will produce more excellent historical novels for young Canadian readers.