Swan: the Girl Who Grew by Sidura Ludwig

Swan offers a fictionalized account of the real historical person, Anna Swan who grew to be almost eight feet tall.

It is August, 1858. Anna Swan is twelve-years-old and the biggest girl in Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Anna lives with her parents, Alexander and Ann on a farm along with her sister Maggie, and her brothers John, George, and David. She's an astounding six feet, ten inches tall. She has to duck under doorways and ceilings and barely fits into her bed or at the kitchen table. Anna dreams of being smaller than others and of being beautiful. She would love a pair of ladies boots but she's growing so fast that she has to wear the shoes her father has made her, even though her toes are now peeking out at the seams. And the pretty blue dress her mother made for her in the spring is already too small. 

Her mother's mother, Grandmother Graham, offers Anna's family a place to live on her farm in Central New Annan.  Grandfather passed away in the spring and she is now alone on the farm. The prospect of a move frightens Anna. As expected, Anna finds that people in New Annan are also curious about her and drive by the farm to stare at her. This angers her grandmother.

Anna remembers how, when she was four- years-old, a man who came to see about a cow, advised her father "...to put her on exhibition..." to make money. At that time, Anna did not know what "exhibition" meant. Although her father sold the cow, he told the man his daughter was not for display. But worried about the coming winter, Anna was taken to Truro and shown as "The Biggest Little Girl in Colchester County". Anna remembers being touched by strangers and later comforted by her mother.

One day after picking berries, Anna learns that a man has come from the city offering her father money to exhibit Anna at a museum of "oddities" in New York City. Her father flat out refuses. After church,  while Anna is playing with her younger brothers, she steps on the foot of a boy. That boy, Jack McGregor, ridicules Anna for her size and calls her an elephant. Mr. McGregor is just as rude as his son, commenting on Anna's height and suggesting to her father that he shouldn't hide her, but show her off. Later on, Grandmother reveals that McGregor has been attempting to take over her farm. Anna realizes her family has come to the farm to help prevent this from happening.

In September, 1858, Anna walks to school with her siblings. Before they leave for this first day of school, her father notches each child's height on the barn. Anna is a remarkable six feet, eleven inches tall. At school, Jack is the tallest boy but Anna is taller than him. He calls Anna a "monster" under his breath. Their teacher, Miss Miller, is a young woman who is shorter than Anna's mother. She is friendly, greeting each student as they come into school. Miss Miller greets Anna and tells her she's been looking forward to having her as a student because she knows Anna is a good student. Anna sits at the back of the classroom, but wishes she could be at the front, close to the teacher - but only if she were smaller. The first day at her new school is a struggle for Anna, especially dealing with Jack McGregor. But Miss Miller kindly arranges for Anna's father to raise her desk so she can sit properly. 

Meanwhile on the farm, the list of repairs grows and it is apparent that they need to take out a loan to survive. In November, Anna's mother gives birth to a baby girl named Eliza, a month early. As the family struggles to cope, Anna spies an ad in the serial magazine that Miss Miller has lent her about a growth supplement. She reasons if there is something to make people grow, perhaps there is something she can take that will stop her from growing. Anna's quest to find this takes her to the druggist at Gunn's General Store but he tells her that there is nothing to help her because tallness isn't an illness. However, Mr. McGregor overhears Anna and offers to help her earn the money to go to Boston to get the drug she needs by performing for him in Halifax. Anna decides to take McGregor up on his offer, not realizing what it might mean for her and her family.

Discussion

Swan is a fictional account about a real historical person known as Anna Swan who grew up in Nova Scotia. Author Sidura Ludwig encountered Anna's story while visiting the Anna Swan Museum in  Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. In her Author's Note at the back, Ludwig writes that as a child, she was tall for her age and understood how Anna must have felt. She "...decided to write Anna's story, imagining what life might be like for her when she was twelve years old." While some scenes in the novel really did happen (for example her father raising her desk at school), other events are fictional. Some historical details have also been altered, such as Anna's first exhibition, which was in Halifax and not Truro. Anna also toured many local fall fairs with her family. Anna who lived from 1846 to 1888, grew to be seven feet eleven inches tall and was known as the "Nova Scotia Giantess". Ludwig offers her readers a detailed biography of Anna Swan as well as a History of the Region. 

Swan covers the span of four months from August to December, 1858 and focuses on Anna's internal struggle as a young girl who is abnormally tall. Anna wishes she could be small and not be so noticeable. 

"I'm just a girl

who closes her eyes

and dreams of grown-up days

when she'll have grown

down"

Anna dreams of a home that she doesn't have to duck into, children who will grow taller than her and, 

"People who see me

for something

other than my size" 

Anna also dreams of making herself smaller with the help of a prescription drug:

I imagine pulling my bones into each other

pressing them down

like the way a house settles

over time

the wood shrinking into the ground

maybe just an inch

but I would take an inch

or give it, as the case maybe be

I sleep like this because for the first time

I believe

I can control my body

with just the right

prescription

I can finally be whomever 

I want

Throughout the novel Anna wishes she could be different, someone else. It isn't until she goes to Halifax and is on exhibition that she begins to accept who she is. It is a difficult journey as she is "examined" by a group of doctors who look but don't listen and then as she is treated like property by McGregor. When Anna realizes that McGregor is not going to share the money he makes from showing her, Anna begins to understand that she has some power to change this. And she acts. Her desire to help herself, her baby sister Eliza and her family, motivate her. This change in her perspective is also experienced by Jack,  after he sees his father's unkindness towards Anna and how he treats her like property. Jack feels shame and quietly supports Anna when she outmaneuvers his father and holds her own "exhibition". 

Ludwig portrays Anna as clever, intelligent, caring and gentle. Unfortunately at this time, medical science was not advanced enough to understand why Anna grew to be so large. In the novel, Ludwig imagines Anna worrying about how tall she will be and if she will ever stop growing. These kinds of worries would be only natural for both Anna and her family, because at that time there was no understanding of her condition and therefore no treatment.  

Swan offers an interesting fictional account of Anna Swan, a little known historical figure in Canada's past. This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy novels in verse but they may struggle to get past the unattractive cover, to find the gem of a story.

Book Details:

Swan: The Girl Who Grew by Sidura Ludwig

Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.    2024

298 pp.

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond: A Civil Rights Icon by Rachel Kehoe with Wanda Robson

Viola Davis was born in  1914 and grew up in the North End, where Halifax's Black community was located. Viola's ancestors had fled slavery in the United States in the 1800's. They came to Nova Scotia where they were free. However, life in Nova Scotia was not easy for Black people as society was segregated just like in the U.S. Black people did not live in the same neighborhoods or attend the same schools as white people. Few jobs were open to Black people and they were often refused service at local businesses.

Viola's parents, James Davis and Gwendolyn Irene Johnson had married secretly in 1908. Gwendolyn was of mixed-race heritage, but she considered herself Black. They moved in with James's parents in the North End and started what would be a very large family. Viola was the fifth of fifteen children, however only eleven of the children survived. Viola survived a bout of pneumonia, the illness that took the life of her younger sister, Hazel. She also survived the Halifax Explosion which severely damaged Halifax and in particular, the North End.

The Davises attended Trinity Anglican every Sunday. Viola took classes at Joseph Howe Elementary School which was integrated. She worked hard at her studies and was a top student at Bloomfield High School where she excelled in history, English and geography.

With the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, the loss of jobs and a drought on the prairies, Viola's father worked occasional jobs. Viola graduated from high school when she was sixteen-years-old in 1930. She wanted to be a teacher, but because the teachers college in Truro did not admit Black students, Viola's application was rejected. Nevertheless, Viola was able to teach at the segregated schools when she was nineteen, after passing the provincial exam. As someone who held herself to high stands, Viola also held her students to the same level.

Viola also became and advocate for her younger sister, Wanda who was twelve years her junior and experiencing racism in her class. Wanda attended Alexandra Elementary School in Grade 2. Her teacher, Ms. Reid, placed Wanda at the back of the class along with other Black students who she ignored. Ms. Reid had a rule that children who achieved top marks could sit at the front of the class. However, when Wanda achieved top marks and was moved to the front of the class, her teacher seemed upset and refused to let her answer questions. Then she sent Wanda to the Grade 3 class where she told the teacher not to assign Wanda any work. Eventually Wanda was returned to her Grade 2 class but was placed at the back of the room. When Parents' Day came around, Viola and her mother had to intervene.

Viola eventually made the decision to become a beautician, as there were almost no Black beauty salons in Canada. Black women were unable to attend beauty school in Halifax, so Viola saved her money and travelled to Montreal to attend school there in 1936. During her time in Montreal, Viola married Jack Desmond. In 1937, Viola, now a trained beautician, opened Vi's Studio of Beauty Culture in Halifax's North End.

In 1939, Viola attended the Apex College of Beauty Culture and Hairdressing in Atlantic City, N.J. to learn more about Black beauty techniques. By 1944, she opened the Desmond School of Beauty Culture so Black women could train to be hairdressers and beauticians.

But on November 8, 1946, Viola's life would take a very different turn. She travelled to Sydney, Cape Breton to deliver beauty products. When her car broke down, Viola found herself stranded in New Glasgow for the evening. She decided to take in a movie, The Dark Mirror at the Roseland Theatre. Viola bought a ticket for the downstairs section of the theatre. Patrons could sit downstairs or in the balcony. Because Viola had poor eyesight she wanted to sit close in the downstairs area. 

Viola took her seat in the downstairs section when she was told by the usher that her ticket was for the balcony. Puzzled, Viola returned to the cashier to pay extra for the downstairs ticket but was told she was "not allowed to sell downstairs tickets to you people." Viola knew that the woman at the desk was referring to Viola being Black. Viola refused to be intimidated and returned to her seat downstairs. With the movie starting, the usher returned, now advising Viola that if she didn't move, he would call the manager, Henry MacNeil.

The manager arrived and soon the police were called. Viola was on her way to jail for sitting downstairs in a movie theatre. Viola spent the night in jail and was taken before a judge the next day, without legal representation and not given the chance to make a phone call. "She was was accused of not paying the difference in tax for the downstairs ticket - a single penny." She was found guilty and fined twenty dollars plus the cost of Henry's court fees. This would be the impetus for the civil rights movement in Canada. It would be over forty years later that Viola would receive a pardon and her efforts to be treated equally would be recognized.

Discussion

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond traces the life of Black Canadian, Viola Davis Desmond from her family's early roots in Nova Scotia in the 1800's to her untimely death in 1965 and her legacy into the 21st century. The authors were able to write an informative biography of Viola based on the interviews with her younger sister, Wanda Robson.

Viola Desmond, like her family and other Black Canadians spent most of her life dealing with racism. The systemic racism that existed in Canada in the first half of the 20th century was to shape their lives in almost every way. Slavery was abolished across the Empire by the British parliament on August 1, 1834. Although people of African descent living in the British colonies were legally free, they continued to face prejudice and inequality, even ninety years after the legislation. 

In the early 20th century, in Nova Scotia, schools, churches and theatres were segregated. The segregation was not uniform either within the same town or from community to community. Some hotels and restaurants would not serve Black people. Canadians of African descent lived separate from white people in their own neighborhoods. Black schools were similar to those in the United States, lacking in books, blackboards and other basic supplies. Black people couldn't work as teachers because the teachers college in Truro wouldn't admit them.  There were few jobs open to Black men and women, and those available were low paying.

Viola and her family encountered many of these prejudices and inequalities which affected the choices they made in their lives. Viola wanted to be a teacher but was refused entry into the college at Truro. Although she did teach for a time in Black schools, Viola decided to become a beautician. As a Black woman who prided herself on always looked her best, Viola would not have been able to be served in a white beauty shop. It is also possible that many beauticians of this era would not have known how to treat or style the unique hair of Black women, and likely had no inclination to learn. Viola set about learning her craft and bringing that knowledge back to Nova Scotia where she eventually opened her own shop and beauty school, and made available beauty products designed for Black women and men. 

All of this would set the stage for Viola's act of resistance in the New Glasgow theatre in 1946. She was jailed for simply wanting to sit in the downstairs area of the theatre. Her inequality extended into the Nova Scotia court system where she was found guilty and fined and then to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court where she lost her case. In that instance, the case was not about segregation. However, one judge, Justice Hall knew that Viola was treated this way because she was Black.

Although Viola Desmond was not the first to resist (journalist Carrie Best was turned out of the Roseland Theatre in 1941 for the same reason), her actions marked a turning point in the fight for equality that was beginning in the post-war period in North America. Kehoe and Robson highlight some of those individuals in sidebars. For example, Pearleen Oliver a community activist and cofounder along with her husband, Rev. Dr. William P. Oliver of the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP),was successful in getting Black women the right to attend nursing schools in Canada. However, progress was slow. It wasn't until 1959 that the Fair Accommodation Practices Act was passed in Nova Scotia, banning discrimination in housing. In 1963, racial discrimination was outlawed with the passage of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act.

Viola never lived to see the changes that happened after her untimely death in 1965. Her small act of resistance was mostly forgotten but not by her sister Wanda who had initially been embarrassed by Viola going to jail. But as she matured, Wanda came to understand and began speaking about what happened. Viola eventually received a full pardon, posthumously in 2010. Today Canadians are reminded of Viola's desire for equality by her picture on the ten dollar bill. 

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond is a well written biography incorporating the "personal experiences" and "treasured memories" of Viola through the interviews of her sister Wanda Robson. Readers will learn about what it was like for Black Canadians living in Nova Scotia and Canada in the early 20th century and how they fought for equality. 

What is lacking in this chapter book for young readers, are photographs of Viola Desmond and her family, and many of the places of importance in her story. It would have been extremely interesting to see items available from the Nova Scotia archives: for example an article from a provincial newspaper covering her Supreme Court case (noting that she was charged with fraud ), articles from The Clarion, one of the first Black newspapers in the province, and the Notice of Motion to take the case to the Supreme Court. At issue also is the over-use of digital illustrations which are so common in juvenile nonfiction and biographies. The authors include a Time Line, a Glossary, a list of Resources and an Index. 

Book Details:

The Trailblazing Life of Viola Desmond: A Civil Rights Icon by Rachel Kehoe with Wanda Robson
Orca Book Publishers Ltd.     2023
87 pp.

Nathalie. An Acadian's Tale of Tragedy and Triumph by Debra Amirault Camelin

It is September 15, 1755 in  Grand Pre, Nova Scotia. Thirteen-year-old Nathalie Belliveau lives in a typical one-room Acadian house with her younger sister, ten-year-old Isabelle, her sixteen-year-old sister Agnes, and her brothers Isidore and Joseph, as well as her parents, Agnes and Charles and her Grand-mere Jeanne Lizzie.

Recently they have seen the arrival of British ships in the Minas Basin and the set up of a large number of tents. On this day all the village men and boys ten years old and up, from Grand Pre, the Minas, and the Canards, must attend a meeting at Saint-Charles-des-Mines Church in Grand Pre. Nathalie's brother Michel believes it would be best for them to simply leave Grand Pre and start over in Quebec, but Papa knows that they might not get permission to leave.

As it happens, Nathalie's father and brothers do not return from the meeting that night, nor the next day. Two weeks later, with their men still not home, Nathalie's family learns that Major-General John Winslow presided over the meeting in which he claimed the Acadians were disloyal to King George. As a result, their lands, homes and animals were to be confiscated. When the men pleaded to be allowed to leave Acadia and move to Quebec, instead "Winslow ordered the unmarried men and boys to be separated from their fathers and brothers. Then, in groups of fifty, surrounded by armed soldiers who pointed their bayonets at the prisoners, they were marched to the shore." Despite the pleas and cries of the young men they were placed on five ships which sailed away. Then the married men were placed on other ships in the bay.

As the women are telling what happened, soldiers arrive at Nathalie's home and order them to pack their belongs and leave. They are taken down to the shore of New Minas Basin where their neighbours and friends are forced into large dories. Witnessing families being separated, Nathalie links her arms with those of her sisters, Isabelle and Agnes. 

For three days Nathalie and her sisters and maman wait on the shore. On the third day they are told to get ready to leave on the Elizabeth. Nathalie's mother suddenly realizes that the prized bottle her mother had given her is not with their possessions. Nathalie decides to leave and run back to their home to retrieve the precious bottle. While she is searching for the bottle, Nathalie encounters Brigitte Boudrot and her older brother Basile from Riviere-aux-Canards. Brigitte tells Nathalie that she cannot return to the shore because it is now too dangerous. So they make their way to a hidden dory along the shore where a family friend had hidden supplies.

Once they retrieve the supplies, the trio head into the forest, away from the shores. However, because Basile has an infected wound on his arm, their progress becomes slower and slower. He was wounded saving his sister from a British soldier intent on raping her. Eventually Basile becomes feverish and is no longer able to travel. They are found by Mi'kmaw hunters on their way back to their camp after taking down a moose. Nathalie, Basile and Brigitte are taken to the Mi'kmaq camp further into the Sipekne'katik territory. There they find a camp of five birch bark wigwams located near a lake.

Basile is treated by an elderly woman named Musikisk Pukwik'l which means Sky Eyes because her eyes are blue. As Basile struggles to recover, Nathalie and Brigitte are welcomed into the tribe and participate in the feast celebrating Wowksis jij's feat of killing a moose. Nathalie soon develops a strong bond with a young Mi'kmaw girl, Nipk Amu who is of similar age.

After a week, with Basile now recovered and the Mi'kmaq preparing to move their camp further inland, Nathalie, Basile and Brigitte continue their journey southwest to the Cheboque River where they seek refuge. At Cheboque Point, Basile meets Alain Bain, the smithy and tells him they are refugees from the British who have rounded up the people from Riviere-aux-Canards, Grand Pre and Port Royal to Cobequid. The villagers have been deported to unknown destinations, possibly France and New England. Jacques Amirault and son Ange, meet Nathalie, Basile and Brigitte at the smithy. While Basile decides to continue his journey, it is arranged that Jacques Amirault and Ange will bring Nathalie into their family while his sister Brigitte will stay with Alain's mother and sisters.

As Nathalie grows to love the Amirault family, she never gives up hope of finding her own family again. But as a second deportation further south, separates her from her bretrothed, Nathalie is determined to not just survive, but reunite both with the man she loves and her family.

Discussion

Nathalie is a fictional story based on the real lives of two Acadian families, the Belliveaus and the Amiraults who were forcibly expelled from their homes in Nova Scotia in 1755. The author, Debra Amirault Camelin writes in her Author's Note that she is an "eleventh-generation Belliveau and ninth-generation Amirault, born in Canada. Nathalie Belliveau and Ange Amirault are my fourth great-grandparents." Amirault Camelin based her story, Nathalie, on "factual breadcrumbs mixed with educated fabrication."

Not much historical fiction has been written about the Acadian expulsion that seems now largely a piece of forgotten Canadian history.  The Acadians arrived from France in 1604 and settled  in the New Minas Basin - in the Bay of Fundy area, as well as the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley. The area became known as Acadia, with its capital of Port-Royal. The Acadians were an industrious people who were able to turn the marshy areas into fertile farm fields through the use of dykes. Most Acadians were farmers. Unlike other European settlers, the Acadians formed a strong friendship with the Indigenous Mi'kmaq. 

But in 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht gave the French land in Acadia to the British. At first it seemed that as long as the Acadians remained neutral, all would be well. However, the construction of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island and Fort Beausejour on Isthmus of Chignecto angered the British who countered with their own forts. In the summer of 1755, Governor Charles Lawrence demanded that the Acadians take an oath of allegiance to the British. When they refused, he ordered the deportations. It is also likely the British coveted the well-developed and prosperous farms and fertile land of the Acadians. So on September 5, 1755, Colonel John Winslow rounded up the Acadian males over the age of ten and placed them aboard ships bound for the British Colonies. Although some resisted and fled into the forests, in the end about ten thousand Acadians were deported between 1755 and 1763. Thousands of Acadians died from drowning when their ships sank, from disease or starvation on board the ships that took them to the British colonies or the Caribbean. Many more suffered from poor living conditions in the colonies.

In Nathalie, Debra Amirault Camelin effectively portrays the plight of the Acadians who were forcibly removed from their homes, suffering the loss of their farms and most of their possessions, with women and children separated from husbands and fathers, and in some cases never reunited. Readers will come to understand just how devastating the expulsion was to the tight-knit Acadian families.  

But Nathalie is not only a portrayal of the brutality of the British but also of the tenacity and resilience of the Acadians. This is seen in many of  the  characters in the novel: Basile almost loses his life protecting his sister Brigitte, Ange and Dittou travel to the English colonies to find Nathalie's parents, and Nathalie signs on for extra years as a servant in order to protect Ludivine.

In what  seems to be an effort to appeal to teen readers, Amirault Camelin imagines the romance between Nathalie Belliveau and her betrothed, Ange Amirault. It involves a description of the Catholic couple engaging in a night of passion when they reunite on Captain Soudan's ship in 1763. Although entirely possible, it's also probably unlikely, as Amirault Camelin imagined it. Young couples were often well chaperoned during this era and it's likely this would have been the case when Nathalie was brought on board the ship. Captain Soudan would have felt himself responsible for protecting Nathalie, the daughter of a man with whom he had a strong friendship. 

In Nathalie, the latter chapters of the novel do focus on the young couple's relationship and in particular, Nathalie's mother's apparent understanding of her actions with Ange. This seems to be a case of applying twenty-first century morals and attitudes to an era that was very, very different from our own. This makes Nathalie a novel best suited for older teen readers.

Overall, Nathalie is a realistic portrayal of the tragedy and triumph of the Acadians, with a touch of romance that may appeal to older readers. The author has included several maps showing the main settlements of Acadia, the districts of the Mi'kmaq and the destinations of the two Acadian expulsions. There are also family trees of the Belliveau and Amirault lineage.

Book Details:

Nathalie. An Acadian's Tale of Tragedy and Triumph by Debra Amirault Camelin
Vancouver, B.C. : Ronsdale Press     2023

365 pp.

Call Me Bill by Lynette Richards

The story begins with a family on Marrs Island, Nova Scotia, March, 1873. The Clancy's have lived on the protected side of the island for three generations. Sarah Jane's husband, John O'Reilly fished with her father and uncle.

On April 1, 1873, Sarah Jane heard a strange noise, saw flares in the night sky across the island, and awakened her father, Michael, telling him people were in trouble. As he set out, he came across a man on the path, frozen and delirious. Michael sent a man to get help as bigger boats were needed for the open sea.

Across the island, the men found the bodies of women strewn on the rocks. People were clinging to the rocks and out on the water lay the S.S. Atlantic on its side.

At dawn, the bigger boats arrived from Upper Prospect and Terence Bay. The men battled the sea, saving the survivors. The dead they piled on the granite rocks of Ryan's Island. It came to be called "the Hill of Death".

When Captain Williams tried to identify the dead, he was stunned to find that one young sailor who looked like a boy, was a woman. No one knew who she was or how she came to be on the S.S. Atlantic.

But nine months earlier, in June of 1872, in Trenton, New Jersey, Cicely offers Margaret her father's old clothing. Using the name Billy, she took the 4:25 AM train to Jersey City, then the ferry to New York.

In New York City, Billy was hired on by the captain of the S.S. Hutton. It sailed out of New York on July 1, 1872, with Billy as the Engineer's Steward. Finding Billy a good worker, the captain asked her to stay on to China, but Billy was intent on travelling only as far as England. Despite feeling self-conscious in her father's clothing, Billy liked how she was treated when dressed as a man.

In London, Billy left the ship, stayed at the Sailors' Home Boarding House, and purchased sailor clothes and oilskins. While there, Billy saw many injustices but also how women were agitating for social change. To earn money to return to New York, Billy signed on to the Eskdale which was sailing to Genoa, Italy.

On the trip, Billy was bullied by another sailor. She tried to avoid the man as much as possible but eventually Billy decided to fight back. The result was her identity as a woman was discovered by the captain's wife. Margaret admitted to the captain and his wife that she was Maggie Armstrong but that when she wore "pantaloons" she called herself Billy. Maggie's sailor chest, clothes and oilskins that she'd purchased were confiscated and she was forced to dress in women's clothing.

In Aberdeen, Scotland, Maggie was reprimanded by the judge who ordered her to return to New York in the steerage class on the S.S. Victoria. She was told if she returned she would be jailed. On the Victoria, Margaret met Ralph Keeler, a reporter for the New York Tribune. Margaret told Keeler about her life growing up on her family's farm in New Jersey, how she began wearing her brother's clothing when she was nine-years-old, her mother's Quaker activism for social reform, her brother Jamie's death during the Civil War and how his death led to their mother's early death as well. 

Keeler and Margaret disembarked at Castle Gardens: he told her to seek support at Harry Hill's Concert Saloon. There Margaret dressed and lived as Bill. But she missed the sea, so she returned, working on the S.S. Atlantic, a passenger liner owned by the White Star Line. It would be Margaret/Bill's last journey at sea.

Discussion

Author Lynette Richards has crafted an engaging fictional account of the life of Margaret Armstrong, set against the tragedy of the sinking of the passenger liner, the S.S. Atlantic in 1873. Margaret,  a young Dutch New Jersey woman, was able to pass herself off as a male sailor in the late 1800's. Richards, using the graphic novel format, pieces together Margaret's unusual life and her tragic death from primary sources including the Aberdeen Journal, the New York Tribune and the Halifax Chronicle. Some of these sources are included in novel's illustrations.

The Aberdeen Journal's article mentions a Margaret Armstrong, from New Jersey, who dressed as a sailor, called herself Bill and was exposed as a young woman by the wife of the captain of the Eskdale which sailed from Aberdeen to Spain. Ralph Keeler's article in the New York Tribune also describes a young woman who calls herself Maggie Armstrong except when she wears pantaloons and is then called Billy. Maggie was hired on to the Eskdale to travel to Genoa Italy but was exposed as a woman after a fight with one of the men. Then comes the article in the Halifax Chronicle after the sinking of the Atlantic and the discovery that one of the young sailors was in fact, a young woman. As Emily Burton Rocha indicates in her informative introduction, its likely the woman described in these three articles, penned within a matter of months in 1873, is the same person.

Ralph Keeler, author of the Tribune article, is himself an interesting character: he worked in minstrel shows, dressed as a woman and did Black face. So it's not surprising that he would have been interested in the unconventional Margaret Armstrong and want to interview and write about her.

Call Me Bill is a story of resilience, grit and determination. Margaret Armstrong was a woman who felt constrained by the social norms and expectations placed on women in this era. Dressing as a man, gave Margaret the opportunity to be treated better (something she readily noticed) and to support herself - an option that was not common at this time for women. The expectation was that a woman would marry. A sailor's life was hard, but it also offered the opportunity to see the world and a measure of freedom that Margaret would never have had living on a farm in New Jersey.

Richards who serves on the Board of Directors of the S.S. Atlantic Heritage Park and Society, frames Margaret's story with the sinking of the Atlantic. In her Author's Note, Richards writes, "I set out to tell the true story of the SS Atlantic wreck and the heroic rescue through the lens of the mysterious 'female sailor'. Newspapers provided facts, but did not, could not, recount the substance of the person. I recognized myself in this person, and I suspect many readers will too. This story presents the opportunity to explore identity, courage, and the radical imagination of a young person who took huge risks to occupy space that others would have had difficulty imagining."

Although she wrote a long version of this story, Richards decided to use the graphic novel format, "...to activate readers' interest and imaginations around th eimportant history of the SS Atlantic, and the heroic efforts of local Nova Scotian villagers." Her beautiful panels were rendered in grey watercolour washes which she references in her Author's Note. 

Call Me Bill is well-written, interesting and beautifully illustrated. A must-read for those who love graphic novels, unusual historical figures, and Canadian history.

Book Details:

Call Me Bill by Lynette Richards
Wolfville, Nova Scotia: Conundrum Press     2022
96 pp.

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern

One day Muinji'j comes home from school upset. She tells her grandparents that they have been talking about the residential schools and what happened to the children in these schools. However, when she tried to tell her teacher what her grandparents had told her she refused to listen. So her Nana tells her that she will tell her the story of the Mi'kmaw people and what happened to them regarding the residential schools.

In what is now called Nova Scotia, a people called the Mi'kmaq lived in wigwams and travelled using canoes made from the trees. They called their land Mi'kma'ki.  From the animals they hunted, they got their food and their clothing. They wasted nothing, giving thanks for the Earth's gifts by leaving dried tobacco on the land. The Mi'kmaq especially cherished their children because they were the knowledge keepers who learned from the stories the Elders told. 

The Elders taught them to respect the land and water, that they were connected to the people of the past and the future and that their long braids "held the teachings of their people and that they would give them strength."

When new people came to their land, the Mi'kmaq welcomed them, traded with them, explored their land with them. The two peoples made promises to share the land. However, with the passage of time, the new people forgot what they had learned from the Mi'kmaq about the land. They called the land Nova Scotia and they decided the land belonged to them.

Eventually the Mi'kmaq were displaced from their lands, pushed onto smaller pieces. Mi'kma'ki was now Nova Scotia, part of a new country called Canada.

Since the Mi'kmaq thought, talked and dressed differently, the new people decided to force the Mi'kmaq to change. They were forced to move to new lands called reservations. Despite this, the Mi'kmaq refused to abandon their traditions and culture. They were then told that they could not leave their communities, practice their traditions nor have large gatherings, otherwise they would be sent to jail. To counter this resistance, the new people decided they would build schools and force the Mi'kmaq children to attend them. This would allow them to learn the "Canadian way of life".

In Nova Scotia, Mi'kmaq children attended Shubenacadie Residential School, which overlooked the Shubenacadie River. The school was a Catholic residential school that accepted children from all over Eastern Canada. It was run by Catholic priests and nuns. At the schools, the children had their braids cut, their clothes thrown away and they were forbidden to speak in their own language.

Muinji'j notes that only her great-grandmother can speak a language she does not understand. Her grandfather tells her Kiju speaks Mi'kmaq which is the name of their language. Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened at the schools and how their beliefs, culture and traditions were forgotten by the children who attended the schools.

Discussion

Muinji'j Asks Why tells the story of the Mi'kmaq and the Shubenacadie Residential School. The Shubenacadie Residential School was one of many residential schools used to remove Indigenous children from the influence of their families and communities, destroying their culture and traditions and the ability to speak their own languages. The Shubenacadie Residential school, located in the Sipekni’katik district of Mi’kma’ki, was open from 1930 to 1967 and was the only residential school in the Maritimes. It was funded by the government of Canada, managed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Halifax and later the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and staffed by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The school was demolished in 1986. 

The purpose of the school, like other residential schools was to suppress Indigenous culture and have the children conform to European culture. Children from the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik were forced to attend despite objections from parents and Indigenous leaders. They endured harsh conditions, punishment, physical and sexual abuse and forced labour. Due to incomplete records, it is not entirely possible to determine all those who attended the school.

Shanika MacEachern, a Mi'kmaw woman and Native Student Advisor with Annapolis Valley Centre for Education in collaboration with Breighlynn (Muinji'j) MacEachern, a grade 3 student and young Mi'kmaq have crafted a well-written account of the Mi'kmaq experience with Canada's residential school system. 

Muinji'j's grandparents explain to her what happened to their people with the coming of the white Europeans to Atlantic Canada, how their traditions were made illegal and they were confined to reservations their experiences with the residential school system which broke apart families and destroyed traditional beliefs and practices, and how the Mi'kmaq now live by Etuapmumk, or "'two-eyed seeing': one eye for the Mi'kmaw ways and one for the Canadian ways. We as L'nu understand the Canadian ways and accept them as part of our lives, but we also hold strong to our traditions and culture." The authors have written in a honest, forthright manner, with these events portrayed by the richly coloured digital art of Zeta Paul.

Muinji'j AsksWhy is highly recommended as a resource for young readers to learn about the Mi'kmaq, and the residential school experience. 

For more information on the Shubenacadie Residential School.

Indigenous Perspectives

Book Details:

Muinji'j Asks Why by Muinji'j and Shanika MacEachern
Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.       2022

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis by Jo Ellen Bogart

Not many Canadians have heard of  Maritime folk artist Maud Lewis. Maud was born in 1903 in the town of Yarmouth, in Nova Scotia to John and Agnes Dowley. She was born with several disabilities including misshapen hands, hunched shoulders and a very small chin. She was also very petite. Uncomfortable around others because of her physical differences, Maud was a loner. She was often teased at school and eventually dropped out at aged fourteen. Despite this Maud had a happy family life with her parents and her brother and was known for her sweet disposition and lovely smile. To help her, Maud's mother had her paint Christmas cards to sell to their neighbours. She learned to play the piano but eventually her arthritis became too painful.

Life changed drastically for Maud after her father's death in 1935 and her mother's death in 1937. Around the time of her parents deaths, Maud had a child, a baby girl who was put up for adoption.

Maud lived with her brother who inherited the family home and then moved in with an aunt in Digby, Nova Scotia. It was in Digby that she met her husband Everett Lewis, a fish peddler. Maud and Everett married in 1938. They lived in a small house in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia. Their little house which lacked basic amenities such as electricity and indoor plumbing, would be Maud's home for over thirty years. Despite their very different personalities, Maud and Everett seemed to get along very well. Everett encouraged Maud in her painting but because they were so poor, Maud used any materials she had at hand, including board, cardboard and even household items such as baking trays and dustpans. Maud's worsening rheumatoid arthritis meant she wasn't able to do housework so Everett cleaned house while Maud painted and supported them through the sale of her art.

Her colourful oil paintings, done in the primitive style often portrayed interesting details of everyday life and became increasingly popular. A simple sign that said "Paintings for Sale" drew in buyers and her reputation grew. As is often the case with artists, Maud's talent was largely unrecognized during her lifetime. That began to change in the 1960's when CBC produced a documentary on her in 1965.

Maud's health began to decline after she fell and broke her hip. Years of exposure to wood smoke and paint fumes added to her health problems. Maud died in 1970 and in 1979, Everett passed away. Their house, filled with Maud's paintings on the walls and other surfaces, began to deteriorate. Eventually the house was given to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax and can be viewed there.

Maud Lewis in her home.

Capturing Joy is aptly named for Maud's painting were both colourful and exuded the joyful moments of life. Author Jo Ellen Bogart includes many interesting details about Maud's life. Accompanying the text are Mark Lang's pencil sketches while each opposite page is a photograph of one of Maud's paintings which are exhibited in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Bogart's picture book is a welcome addition to the literature about Maud Lewis because it helps acquaint younger readers with Canadian art and artists.

The inspiration for the picture book resulted from a visit by Bogart to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where Maud Lewis's paintings are on exhibition and where her little house permanently resides. Bogart states "I went to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where there is this magnificent display of Maud Lewis' work and the little house she lived in. The entire house is actually in the gallery. Well, this just made it so real. I stood at the door of that house forever, looking in, imagining Maud's life in a structure the size of one room in today's house. I had known her work and liked it, but it was a very peripheral thing because I was busy with other things. All of a sudden, it was front and centre, and I was confronted with her life and her work. I knew before I left the gallery that day that I wanted to do that book." Bogart noticed that there were no books for children on this Nova Scotia artist so she decided to remedy that.

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis is a beautiful picture book that captures Maud's remarkable talent and tells her story in an appealing way for readers of all ages.

Book Details:

Capturing Joy: The Story of Maud Lewis by Jo Ellen Bogart
Toronto: Tundra Books       2002