The Belonging Place

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education and the author of The Private Journal
of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

Elspet Mary, immobilized with a broken leg, is encouraged to write down
her life story to pass time during the summer of 1847. As Granny Ross
tells her, “You hae done a mickle lot of living for a maid in her
sixteenth year.”

Indeed, she has. Left motherless as a small child in Aberdeen, and
deprived of her father shortly after, Elspet was warmly accepted into
her aunt and uncle’s family. Just as she was developing a sense of
belonging, however, her uncle decided that emigrating to the New World
would improve the family’s prospects. Over the course of the difficult
and dangerous journey from Scotland to Upper Canada, Elspet wondered if
she would ever find a place to call home.

Elspet’s autobiography provides an authentic portrait of 19th-century
life. Details of pioneer hardship (especially the frightening Atlantic
crossing) are not glossed over, but Little never exaggerates the drama
of the situation, knowing that readers do not require a plot stuffed
with sensational events and lurid description to be deeply moved.
Ultimately, The Belonging Place is the voyage of the human heart and
spirit. Highly recommended.