Grace and the Secret Vault

Living in a beautiful Pacific coast village with her mother, sister and brothers, fourteen year old Grace feels sheltered by the mountains from the troubling world beyond. Then a general strike breaks out in Winnipeg in the spring of 1919 and her father is caught up in it. Facing her fears while waiting for news, Grace finds a way of helping her family.

Ruth Latta knows how to tell a good story – a story about real people searching for a new kind of Canada. Grace, our protagonist, is a teenager in Howe Sound, B.C. as Canada emerges from the First World War and begins the struggle for inclusive democracy. Her father, whom history knows as J.S.Woodsworth, is beginning his long and effective political career. Her mother, also an inspired reformer, teaches and raises a family that includes the strong-willed Grace.

Latta’s skill at painting a clear picture of the world and domestic politics of the time combines with a keen sense of how a lively family grapples with the strains of those politics. It’s a moving story, well told. - Evelyn Gigantes, Former NDP member of the Ontario Legislature.