REVIEWS BY PEGI EYERS
Sandra Joyce
Welldone Publishing, 2011
Caroline: An Extraordinary Lady
Gloria Fidler
Cornerstone Publishing, 2015
Storytelling is a wonderful way to honor our ancestors, as we may know key dates and the places where they were living, but not the more intimate details of their lives. For those who share a passion for genealogy, filling in the blanks with a fictional treatment or composite can inform, entertain, and pay tribute. One of the best accounts of the British Home Children era is Sandra Joyce’s The Street Arab, a story that captures the reality and atmosphere of village life in Scotland, and how an unlikely combination of events can lead to exile and precarity. Based on the experiences of her own father after WWI, Joyce traces the journey of young Robbie James to a “new life in a new land” in Canada, where he is met with condescension and mistreatment during a series of placements as a farm laborer.
Not all British Home Children encountered hardship. When they were released from servitude at age 18, the majority went on to have productive and even successful lives.
With well-researched and potent fiction such as these two volumes as a starting point, you can also explore the heritage of the British Home Children at:
http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com .
The Street Arab: The Story of a British Home Child ~ Access the author’s website at www.sandrajoyce.com for ordering and bookstore information.
Caroline: An Extraordinary Lady is available from the author Gloria Fidler at [email protected]
Pegi Eyers is the author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies for uncolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change. Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. |