Browsing the bookshelves for something young readers age nine to 12 might enjoy curling up with in front of a fire at Christmastime, it is gratifying to find not only a range of books which explore the Canadian scene past and present, but a few which reaffirm that Canadians, despite rumours to the contrary, do have a sense of humour.
Saskatchewan writer Betty Fitzpatrick Dorion calls on her own childhood experience of going with her mother to Bay du Nord, Nfld., to visit relatives in the early 1960s to craft this tale of a young girl’s visit to a coastal outpost slated for resettlement.
In some ways, Patsy would be quite happy if her Grandmother and Uncle Wish would come to live with her family in Cape Grande, Placentia Bay. Visits have been all too rare, and, when Patsy takes the steamer to Shoal Harbour with Mom and Aunt Dora, she hopes it is really a mission to convince the relatives to give up resistance to the resettlement initiative.
Her week-long stay in Shoal Harbour, though, provides her with an understanding of why her grandmother and uncle are so determined to stay.
It is a time filled with excursions out into the bay with her cousins, a deepening appreciation for the beauty of the place with its colourful dwellings perched as close as possible to the water, a chance to actually go out and help Uncle Wish fish for cod, an opportunity to spend time alone with Gran and discover the special meaning the crooks and crannies of her house hold – even if it doesn’t have running water ad electricity.
Dorion not only presents us with a portrait of a very real 11-year-old anxious to embrace everything a summer might offer, but an authentic picture of a place and time, the Newfoundland coastal settlements in the 1960s. It is possible to taste the salt, wander through the village shops, scrabble along rocks to the beach, eavesdrop on conversations filled with the frustrations of displacement.
