I just finished an excellent book by an author who was unknown to me until the cover caught my eye at the town library over Christmas vacation.
The setting is in an area of Canada that I've never been to but would love to see. My husband has been through British Columbia and says it is gorgeous. I've always wanted to go to the northwest of Canada. I would love to explore some of the areas the author describes in this book and which her notes in the back say are real places.
The book is fiction and the time is the early 1970s. I was 10 in 1970 so I had fun reading about that time period.
STORY SUMMARY
Two sisters, Maggie and Jenny, are growing up in British Columbia in a tiny rustic house. The name of their town is Duchess Creek but they live out in the wilds. Their lives consist of building shelters from pine boughs, going on wilderness hikes and camping out, and telling stories around a campfire. Their dad dotes on them and their mother is an adventurous woman. Shortly after Maggie's 10th birthday (Jenny is the oldest), their dad has a logging accident and dies. A few months later their mother abruptly drops them off at a friend's home, promising to return. She never returns.
They keep alive the hope that Mom will come back for them. They deal with all kinds of things that they are not used to. They grew up in a quiet, natural freedom...the great outdoors and now they are in a world that includes a city, school, and a stern guardian.
They begin to wonder HOW their warm and loving mother could just up and leave them.....did she really abandon them or did something happen to her??
Jenny ends up in trouble....(I won't tell you what happens with her so I don't spoil it for you).....and Maggie goes off looking for her mom.
Will she find her mother?? What does she learn when she returns to Duchess Creek and visits Rita, their former neighbor and friend?? What does Agnes, another friend, tell Maggie??
This book centers around the "love of two sisters and the complicated bonds of family".
MY THOUGHTS
I was drawn in to this book immediately. I fell in love with Maggie and I had NO problem imagining their life in the wilderness......the naturalist in me loved picturing the Indian paintbrushes that I remember from my own summer childhood days in the southern Adirondack mountains of my state, (we still have those wildflowers in the Adirondacks and I often look for them on my hikes). I could just smell the wood-smoke, hear the owls, and see the stately pines the author describes.
I enjoyed this book because of the sister bond and the hope they clung to. I found my self rooting for Jenny during her trouble. They are lovable characters whom I wanted to see succeed.
The ending was a bit of a surprise for me but it was excellently executed.
I could NOT put this book down....it was a definite page turner. And now I really do want to travel out to north-western Canada!!
In my opinion, this novel is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
1 comment:
This one's going on my library list now.
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