Synopsis
Coaxed into becoming a canal woman, ten-year-old Emma quickly learns the skill of working on a canal boat and begins to enhance her talents for the future, but she worries about the sister she has left behind and so must decide to do what is best for all.
Reviews
Grade 4-7-Howard returns with another successful historical tale featuring a resourceful young girl. Emma Deane is but 10-years-old and already working in a mill to support her sister, her sister's brutish husband, and their child. One day she happens upon a gate by the riverside and enters the world of the canal folk, people who moved cargo up and down the complex system of canals in 19th-century England. She is pressured into service for a Mrs. Minshull after taking one of the woman's potatoes to assuage her hunger. After helping the elderly boatwoman all the way to Manchester, Emma's self-esteem begins to grow. She meets various characters along the way and discovers an incipient talent: painting. Although Mrs. Minshull is gruff, she treats Emma with a concern that the young girl hasn't felt since her parents died. Feeling guilty, however, for abandoning her sister and the baby, she determines that she must return to them. Once there, Emma discovers where she truly belongs. Howard's attention to detail is not spared, and she provides a dialect true to the time period and culture. Although a glossary helps, some words may be somewhat daunting to younger readers. The overall effect, though, brings this story to life. Children will appreciate Emma's adventures as she makes her way up and down the canal, realizing her gifts and finding a home for herself.
Carol Fazioli, The Brearley School, New York City, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Set in England during the Industrial Revolution, this lively and rewarding novel captures the spirit and speech of the canal boat people who, as an independent class within English society, formed their own distinct culture. The heavy dialect ("Clemmed, were ye?... Mayhappen ye havena supped o' late?") may be a stumbling block for some (especially those who do not discover the appended glossary until the end), but readers who enjoy such vivid language will savor Howard's (The Tower Room; A Different Kind of Courage) skillful use of historical details. Too scared to go home to her sister and her sister's brutish husband after she is locked out of her job at the silk factory for arriving late, 10-year-old Emma wanders through an open gate in a high brick wall. Inside, she finds a "placid ribbon" of water, and the pathway alongside it leads her to a canal boat named Cygnet and its gruff but soft-hearted owner, Mrs. Minshull. To pay for eating one of Mrs. Minshull's potatoes, Emma is put to work as a "huffler," leading the horse that pulls the Cygnet. As the boat travels far from Emma's home in Macclesfield, she grows to enjoy her job and the quiet evenings with Mrs. Minshull. Still, Emma suffers pangs of guilt for leaving her sister. Noting the contrast between the immaculate, brightly painted Cygnet and the grim, squalid conditions of Emma's own home, readers will regret the heroine's decision to return to Macclesfield, but relief comes almost immediately. Swiftly plotted and thoughtfully constructed, this novel makes splendid use of its unusual setting. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Locked out of the silk factory for being but a moment late, an orphan passes through an unexpectedly open gate to a better life in this engrossing tale of expanding horizons from Howard (A Different Kind of Courage, 1996, etc.). Hungry and despairing, Emma peers past an open door to see a gaily painted boat, the Cygnet, moored on the nearby canal, the shipping lanes of Victorian England. The scent of potato is too strong to resist, but she's just eaten one raw when she is pressed into service as a ``huffler'' for crusty old Mrs. Minshull, the boat's owner, helping haul cargoes of potatoes, coal, salt, and the like between towns, while caring for Rosie, the huge, gentle tow horse, and getting regular meals for the first time since her parents' deaths. Readers will be drawn in, both by Emma's sense of wonder at the new world that unfolds before her, and by Howard's evocative portrait of the canal people's distinctive way of life. Emma develops into a sturdy, loyal, self-reliant child who proves herself by resolving an internal conflict, then by hatching a scheme to keep the Cygnet independent. Although the uniformly kind-hearted supporting cast and neatly wrapped ending give this a conventional narrative arc, the strong female leads and well-established sense of era will remind readers of Karen Cushman's The Midwife's Apprentice (1995). (Fiction. 10-12) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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