Beyond the Waterfall

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“Come sit and get your porridge into you, Ellie, lass,” the man with
the sparse grey hair said. Maggie did what she was told. A tall, angular
woman standing by an old-fashioned woodstove scolded her, “It’s near
milking time. I don’t know why you’re so slow—it’s not like
you!” Maggie knew the stern-faced woman was more right than she
suspected. These two people had mistaken Maggie for their daughter
Ellie.

Ellie was a farm girl who lived on a homestead near the tiny hamlet of
Victoria, Manitoba, in 1894. Maggie is an orphan who lives with her Aunt
Kate and cousin Colleen in modern 20th-century New Brunswick. Somehow,
while exploring a waterfall, Maggie is transported back in time to this
primitive small farm. Maggie tries not to show it, but she is very
frightened. Is she stuck in the wrong century forever? What’s happened
to the real Ellie?

Beyond the Waterfall is arguably the best time-travel book of the year.
Elaine Hammond’s text picks up and carries the reader away like a
magic carpet. Her eye for historical detail is dead-on. The story is
moved along by a series of independent adventures that keeps the reader
interested and always entertained. Highly recommended.