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Description
While the rest of the world anticipates a victorious end to the Second World War, sixteen-year-old Sheila Brary finds life in a remote British Columbia outport suffocating and isolating. A household full of brothers, a philandering father and, most of all, Sheila's embittered mother all stand in the way of a bright, beautiful teenager with ambitions and dreams -- to continue her schooling and become a nurse.
The mother-daughter relationship that lies at the heart of this haunting novel is both timeless and complex, and the two strong, rebellious women are more alike than they care to admit. One has succumbed to the demands of a sexist age with resentment, while the other struggles to break away. In the end, Sheila defies her mother by pursuing a romance with Nels, a handsome local carpenter. But when she becomes pregnant, she turns to her father for help, with devastating results.
Contributor Notes
Mary Razzell is the author of several young-adult novels, including Salmonberry Wine, nominated for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, and White Wave, nominated for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. Snow Apples, her first novel, was nominated for a Governor General's Award when it was first published in 1984. A nurse by training, Mary lives Vancouver, British Columbia, where she continues to write YA novels.
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age:
- 0
- Grade:
- p to 12
- Reading age:
- 0
Editorial Reviews
This thought-provoking and powerful Canadian young adult novel merits attention...It is highly recommended for adolescent readers.
— CM Magazine
...as long as angst and longing are the predominant features of young adulthood, this story will remain timeless.
— Calgary Herald
Rivalry, anger, love, and friendship drive the plot, and rooted in character, the action springs from family secrets that surprise the reader until the very last page.
— Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
A grittily honest and compassionate novel...
— Michele Landsberg
...so redolent of British Columbia's southern coast that one can almost hear the salal grow...A sensitively written story of a girl...forced to personal acts of courage by the social inequality of the time.
— Quill & Quire
...a quiet, introspective novel...For mature, thoughtful readers, it will inspire discussions of the struggle of women in recent history.
— School Library Journal
Out of print
This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.
